European Parliament election, 2007 (Bulgaria)

Bulgaria elected its members of the European Parliament in a by-election on 20 May 2007. It was the country's first European election, having joined the Union on 1 January of that year. The country now has 18 MEPs, no change from before the election. Previously Bulgaria was represented by MEPs appointed by their national parliament. The top two parties scored 5 seats each; Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria and European Socialists Platform, followed by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms with four, Ataka with three, and National Movement Simeon II (NDSV) with one.

It was considered likely that the result of the election would cause a major political crisis in Bulgaria, due to the expected weak results of the National Movement. [http://www.diepresse.com/home/politik/eu/293923/index.do?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/eu/index.do]

The five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death and the Bulgarian doctor who received a lighter sentence in the HIV trial in Libya were slated to stand as the six leading candidates on the list of the populist Order, Law and Justice Party – to put pressure on Libya to release the nurses and to postpone their execution because of the immunity they would have as MEPs. [http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=78585] They were refused by the Central Electoral Commission, however, as they did not meet the residency requirements.

Controversially, the eligible voters were limited to citizens of Bulgaria and the EU with their permanent and current address within the Union and a minimum of 60 days of the last three months before the elections spent within its borders. Because of this requirement, 232,800 people were rendered ineligible to vote, 185,000 of whom were Turkish Bulgarians resident in Turkey. [http://www.mediapool.bg/show/?storyid=127621&srcpos=3]

Contesting parties

The following parties contested the elections: [http://english.people.com.cn/200704/15/eng20070415_366589.html]
* Coalition of the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union
* Communist Party of Bulgaria
* Coalition of Bulgarian Social Democrats (Party of Bulgarian Social Democrats, Political Movement "Social Democrats")
* Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria
* Civil Union for New Bulgaria
* Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria
* European Socialists Platform (Bulgarian Socialist Party, Movement for Social Humanism)
* Green Party of Bulgaria
* Movement for Rights and Freedoms
* National Movement Simeon II
* National Union Attack
* Order, Law and Justice
* Union of the Democratic Forces
* Union of Free Democrats
* two independents

The People's First Movement had registered to contest the election, but were refused by the Central Electoral Commission:

Pre-election situation

18 MEPs were appointed by Bulgaria to serve as observers in the Parliament before the country joined in 2007. Since then up until the election, the observers served as full MEPs. The breakdown of parties and their European groupings was as follows:

Results

The official results were announced by the Central Electoral Commission on 21 May. According to the official data, the winner of the elections was Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, followed by a small margin by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, with the distance between the third and the first being less than 1.5%. The voter turnout was 28.6%. [http://www.izbori2007.eu/activity/index.html]

Elected MEPs

According to the election results, the following 18 candidates were elected as Bulgarian Members of the European Parliament: [http://news.ibox.bg/news/id_609321247]

* Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (5)
** Dushana Zdravkova
** Vladimir Uruchev
** Nikolay Mladenov
** Petya Stavreva
** Rumyana Zheleva
* Bulgarian Socialist Party (5)
** Kristian Vigenin
** Iliyana Yotova
** Atanas Paparizov
** Marusya Lyubenova
** Evgeni Kirilov
* Movement for Rights and Freedoms (4)
** Filiz Husmenova
** Mariela Baeva
** Metin Kazak
** Vladko Panayotov
* National Union Attack (3)
** Dimitar Stoyanov
** Slavcho Binev
** Desislav Chukolov
* National Movement Simeon II (1)
** Bilyana Raeva

ee also

* Elections in Bulgaria
* Elections in the European Union
* European Parliament election, 2007
* European Parliament election, 2007 (Romania)
* Bulgaria (European Parliament constituency)

External links

* [http://www.euractiv.com/en/elections/weak-turnout-marks-european-elections-bulgaria/article-163854 Weak turnout marks European elections in Bulgaria] euractiv.com 21/05/07
* [http://www.novinite.com/mep_vote/ Bulgaria's First European Vote] novinite.com
* [http://euobserver.com/9/24096 Bulgaria elects new MEPs amid corruption worries] EUobserver 21/05/07
* [http://www.izbori2007.eu/results/index.html Results] izbori2007.eu (Bulgarian)
* [http://news.ibox.bg/news/id_266969252/ Seats] news.ibox.bg (Bulgarian)