| Election Name: | 2023 Bulgarian local elections |
| 5Data3: | 4 |
| 5Data4: | 1 |
| 5Data5: | 1 |
| Party4: | Movement for Rights and Freedoms |
| 6Data5: | 1 |
| Party3: | Bulgarian Socialist Party |
| 6Data2: | 4 |
| Party5: | There Is Such A People |
| 5Data2: | 4 |
| Country: | Bulgaria |
| 5Blank: | Provincial Mayoralities |
| Election Date: | 29 October and 5 November 2023 |
| Seats For Election: | All positions for mayors and councillors on both the local and provincial level |
| Next Year: | Next |
| Next Election: | Next Bulgarian local elections |
| Previous Year: | 2019 |
| Previous Election: | 2019 Bulgarian local elections |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Type: | local |
| 6Blank: | Provincial Mayoralities +/– |
| Party2: | PP-DB |
| 6Data1: | 5 |
| 5Data1: | 12 |
| Party1: | GERB |
| Party6: | Others |
| 5Data6: | 5 |
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]
| Name | Location | Ideology | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unification for Plovdiv | Bulgarian Cause | Plovdiv | Local politics | Georgi Tityukov | |
| New Leaders | Plovdiv | Local politics Direct Democracy | |||
| 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 | Stanislav Popov | ||
| DzPP | Movement for the Prosperity of Pernik | Pernik | Stanislav Vladimirov | ||
| SS | Spasi Sofia | Sofia | |||
| MORE | More | Nesebar | Local politics Rural interests | Peycho Kolev | |
See also: 2023 Sofia mayoral election.
The election for the position of Mayor of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital and largest city, is expected to be hotly contested and will result in a new mayor being elected, as incumbent mayor Yordanka Fandakova from GERB has announced she will not seek re-election.
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 | data-sort-value="2023-07-21" | 21–25 Jul 2023 | 1,212 | 33.4 | 22.7 | 12.0 | 10.6 | 4.8 | 7.9 | 2.7 | 10.7 | |||||
According to Central Election Commission the number of people who voted on 29 October totaled 2,713,979 or 44.94% of eligible voters. The turnout was 49.76% in the 2019 local elections.The invalid ballots in the 29 October, 2023 elections totaled over half a million, including412,711 ballots for municipal councilors, 94,195 for municipality mayor (down from 128,204 in 2019) and 34,235 for mayoralty mayor.[6]
In general, GERB had the strongest showing throughout the country, although the party failed to make it to the second round in the capital.[7]
Overall, GERB won 11 regional towns, PP–DB won four, and the Bulgarian Socialist party won three. Of the largest four cities, PP-DB won in the capital (Sofia) and Varna while GERB won in Plovdiv and Burgas.[8]