The King’s People Return

Bulgaria’s Recent Elections Left the Country With More Questions Than Answers

14 July 2021

Spasimir Domaradzki

Visegrad Insight Fellow

It appears Boyko Borisov has lost his first election in 13 years, but will the new challenger and former showman, Slavi Trifonov, be able to make a coherent government in line with the anti-corruption movement that propelled him to dethrone the leader, or will politics in Bulgaria be a similar song in a different key?

Sunday’s elections in Bulgaria seemed to be important for two reasons.

Firstly, they were the response to the anti-Borisov’s opposition claims that elections under the former prime minister’s power were neither free nor fair. For this reason, the short-lived parliament adopted new election legislation that not only increased the number of polling sections abroad but also introduced machine voting, which substantially sped up the counting process.

The caretaker government not only implemented the election law but also took active measures against vote-buying — a constant practice in Bulgarian elections since the early 1990s.

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Spasimir Domaradzki

Visegrad Insight Fellow

Visegrad Insight Fellow. Researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies of the University of Warsaw and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Lazarski University in Warsaw.

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