# Bulgaria holds April 2021 snap parliamentary election

Date: 2021

Parliamentary elections are to be held in Bulgaria by 30 June 2030 to elect all 240 members of the [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly).

### The April ballot that failed to produce a stable cabinet

Bulgaria held a regular parliamentary election on 4 April 2021 to choose all 240 members of the National Assembly. The ballot was scheduled at the end of the existing parliamentary term; the subsequent July 2021 election, not the April vote, was the early repeat contest. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's GERB-led alliance finished first but lost its previous governing majority. The new There Is Such a People party, led by entertainer Slavi Trifonov, emerged as a major force alongside the [Bulgarian Socialist Party](/organizations/bulgarian-socialist-party), the [Movement for Rights and Freedoms](/organizations/movement-for-rights-and-freedoms), [Democratic Bulgaria](/organizations/democratic-bulgaria) and Stand Up! Mafia Out!

Official parliamentary data record a fragmented distribution of 75 seats for GERB-SDS, 51 for There Is Such a People, 43 for the Socialists, 30 for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, 27 for Democratic Bulgaria and 14 for Stand Up! Mafia Out! The election took place after months of anti-corruption demonstrations and amid public discontent with established political elites. On 5 April, the OSCE election-observation mission reported that the contest was competitive and efficiently administered but raised concerns about misuse of state resources and conditions for campaigning.

The distribution gave no single party enough seats to govern, and attempts to build a cabinet failed. This outcome contributed to [Bulgaria's repeated elections and anti-corruption deadlock](/drivers/bulgaria-s-repeated-elections-and-anti-corruption-deadlock), leading to another vote on 11 July 2021. It also tested [democratic resilience](/drivers/democratic-resilience), because voters could replace the party balance but their representatives struggled to establish a lasting executive. The April results are a measurable electoral outcome, not evidence that all complaints made by rival candidates about corruption were judicially proven.

## Sources

- https://data.ipu.org/parliament/BG/BG-LC01/election/BG-LC01-E20210404/
- https://odihr.osce.org/odihr/elections/482807

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/bulgaria-parliamentary-election-2021-04