2023 Bulgarian local elections
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
29 October and 5 November 2023
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Local elections in Bulgaria were held on 29 October 2023.[1] Mayors and municipal councillors across the country were elected.[2]
The elections to Bulgaria's municipal councils are conducted via proportional representation with an open list preferential voting system.
The mayoral elections take place within the context of a majoritarian two-round system. The first round of the elections will be held on 29 October. If no candidate in a given constituency manages to gain 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held for that constituency in the second round on 5 November.[3]
Voting is officially mandatory, but in practice there is no punishment for failing to vote and the law itself isn't strictly enforced.[4]
Voters further have the option to vote against all proposed candidates.[5]
Contesting parties and Results
Local parties & coalitions
| Name | Location | Ideology | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leader(s) | |||||
| Unification for Plovdiv | Bulgarian Cause | Plovdiv | Local politics | Georgi Tityukov | |
| New Leaders | Plovdiv | Local politics Direct democracy |
Ivanka Miteva | ||
| RzSR | Development for Septemvri and the Region | Septemvri | Local politics | Radoslav Lyutakov | |
| SzP | Union for Plovdiv | Plovdiv | Local politics Liberal conservatism |
Yevelin Paraskov Veselin Kozarev | |
| BzR | Future of the Motherland | Stara Zagora | Local politics | Stanislav Popov | |
| DzPP | Movement for the Prosperity of Pernik | Pernik | Local politics | Stanislav Vladimirov | |
| SS | Spasi Sofia | Sofia | Local politics Anti-corruption |
Boris Bonev | |
| MORE | More | Nesebar | Local politics Rural interests |
Peycho Kolev | |
Mayorship of Sofia
The 2023 Sofia mayoral election took place as part of Bulgaria’s local elections, with the first round held on 29 October 2023 and a runoff on 5 November 2023. Voters in Bulgaria’s capital elected a new mayor to succeed long-serving incumbent Yordanka Fandakova from GERB who had held the office since 2009.
The main candidates were
- Vasil Terziev — candidate of the reformist coalition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria – Save Sofia. He is a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of software company Telerik.
- Vanya Grigorova — backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and allied left-wing parties.
- Anton Hekimyan — candidate from the center-right GERB–SDS coalition (eliminated in the first round).
Other candidates included nominees from Revival, Blue Sofia, and ITN, but none advanced to the runoff.
Opinion polls for Mayor of Sofia
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample | Vasil Terziev | Anton Hekimyan | Dean Nikolov | Vanya Grigorova | Vili Lilkov | Others | None of the above |
Lead | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PP | DB | SS | GERB | SDS | Revival | BSP | Levitsata! | |||||||
| ЕСТАТ | 29.09-9.10 2023 | 800 | 27.8 | 18.7 | 20.6 | 6.4 | 7.2 | |||||||
| CAM | 21–25 Jul 2023 | 1,212 | 33.4 | 22.7 | 12.0 | 10.6 | 4.8 | 7.9 | 2.7 | 10.7 | ||||
No candidate secured an outright majority in the first round, leading to a runoff between the top two finishers. In the runoff on 5 November, Vasil Terziev won with 48.2 % of the vote, narrowly defeating Vanya Grigorova, who received 46.9 %. The victory margin was one of the tightest in recent Sofia elections. A small share of voters (about 4.9 %) chose the “I do not support anyone” option. [6]
Terziev’s win marked a political shift in Sofia, ending nearly two decades of dominance by the conservative GERB party in the capital. [7]
![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
