Electoral system for the president

2016 Election Code

Article 312. The results of the voting for President and Vice President of the Republic shall be determined using a methodology described in Annex 2 hereto.

Annex 2 to Article 312 (Supplemented, SG No. 39/2016, effective 26.05.2016)

METHODOLOGY for Determining the Voting Results upon Elections of President and Vice President of the Republic

1. Calculate the sum total of the votes cast within Bulgaria and abroad for each candidate list for President and Vice President of the Republic, nominated by a party, coalition or nomination committee.

2. (Supplemented, SG No. 39/2016, effective 26.05.2016) The pair of candidates, which has gained more than one-half of the valid votes, excluding those referred to in Item 7 of Article 333 (1) herein, if more than one-half of the voters have participated in the voting, will be elected.

3. If no list is elected, the Central Election Commission (CEC) will schedule a new election within seven days after the day of the first election.

3.1. The new election will be contested by the two candidate lists which have gained the most votes.

3.2. If more than two candidate lists have gained the most but an equal number of votes, they will all be admitted to contest the new election.

3.3. If one candidate has gained the most votes and two or more candidates have gained the next largest equal number of votes, they will all be admitted to contest the new election.

3.4. If two candidate lists have been admitted to a new election and prior to the election a candidate for President or Vice President on one of the lists dies or falls gravely ill, the CEC will postpone the election and will schedule a new election not later than 14 days after the date of the postponed election. Within three days after the date of the decision of the CEC, the party or nomination committee concerned may register a new candidate.

3.5. If two candidate lists have been admitted to a new election and prior to the new election a candidate on one of the lists withdraws within 24 hours after the declaration of the results of the election conducted, by a decision of the CEC the new election will be contested by the candidate list which has gained the next largest number of votes. If there are no further lists, the National Assembly will schedule a new election of President and Vice President of the Republic.

4. Upon the conduct of a new election, the pair of candidates which has gained the most votes will be elected.

5. If two or more candidate lists have gained the most but an equal number of votes in the new election, no pair of candidates will be elected.

Presidential elections took place in 2016