European Parliament elections

Bulgaria is so far the only member-state that is reproducing its European Parliament elections results in a third consecutive European election after 2009, both in terms of turnout and in terms of seats distribution among the major political actors, regardless of the variety of crises that have hit the EU since. The paper introduces its own analytical model that re-explores both the SOE and EU sali- ence theories in order to explain the different types of electoral strategies put in place by political actors. The paper is built on a comparative approach exploring data from previous EP elections in Bulgaria.

At the beginning of the campaign for the European Parliament elections in Bulgaria, most polls placed the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) either in the first place, or at slight difference after GERB, but in any case, with a real chance of winning this election. Such was the declared objective of the Bulgarian socialists. However, the votes cast on the ballot on May 26, 2019 showed a different picture: BSP ranked second for the fourth consecutive time, with a considerable distance from the first – GERB. The article seeks to answer the question regarding the dimensions and reasons for the results of BSP in the elections. This is done by tracing the overall process of preparing and conducting the campaign, from the formation of the candidate list and the adoption of the election platform, through the course and eatures of the Socialist’s Party campaign. The campaign results are compared with previous results of the Socialists and with the results of the main competitor since 2007 – GERB.

The article analyses the issue of the implementation of new electronic tech- nologies in the electoral process in Bulgaria over the last decade, focusing on the legislative regulation and the implementation of electronic voting in a con- trolled environment (the so-called electronic machine voting) during the Euro- pean Parliament elections in May 2019. In this context, the subject of analysis is the process of adopting legislative amendments in the Electoral Code, which finished before the elections. Deficiencies in the work of the election adminis- tration were also analysed, assessing the Central Election Commission’s activ- ities and the role of the Precinct Election Committees in counting the election results.