Due to old images no longer displaying on the forum, I've decided to re-post the maps of election results by municipalities, along with some that have been made after the thread was last used. And some of the maps have undergone some editing, mainly for the sake of consistency.
On all maps red is for the
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), yellow is for the minority, mainly Turkish dominated
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and blue stands for the main right-wing party in each election. This was the
Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) from 1991 to 1997,
National Movement Simeon II (NDSV) from 2001 to 2005 and
Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) from 2007. Other colors are specific for each map.
All the maps shows, apart from the results in the
Bulgarian municipalities, also the results of the
24 districts of Sofia municipality.
The first post is for the parliamentary elections between 1991 and 2021.
1991
This is to date the closest parliamentary election after 1990, with SDS leading BSP by just 1%.
1994
This was BSP's best ever result after 1990 and the most municipalities won by any party in an election- 233 out of 264.
1997
In this election SDS achieved the largest result of any political party after 1989 - 52.3.
Euroleft was a breakaway party from BSP.
2001
This was the first election after 1990 in which neither BSP or SDS finished first and it marked more or less the end of the two party system that had been established after 1989.
2005
BSP's last victory to date.
DSB is a breakaway party from SDS.
BNS was an electoral alliance of three parties, of which only
VMRO still exists.
In 2009, 209 seats were elected by the proportional system used in all other elections, while 31 were elected by first past the post (FPTP) plurality voting. The first map shows the results of the proportional elections and the second the FPTP ones.
2009 - Proportional results
This was the first of GERB's five consecutive victories.
LIDER was the personal party of a Bulgarian coal mine and plant oligarch.
Blue Coalition was an alliance between SDS, DSB and some minor parties.
2009 - FPTP results
Attack is a nationalist party founded in 2005 and
RSZ was another (more successful) personal party.
2013
Notable for being the only election after which the first party failed to form a government; instead a supposedly technocratic government was formed by BSP and DPS, with the tacit support of Attack.
2014
A crushing victory for GERB and the worst performance for BSP to date.
RB was an alliance between five right-wing parties, including SDS and DSB.
BBT was yet another personal party.
2017
Yet another GERB victory, though more narrow than in 2014. A notable trend that is best seen here is GERB taking over many former strongholds of BSP and some of DPS (helped here by the split in DPS).
DOST was a breakaway party from DPS, which led to DPS's worst result since 1997.
April 2021
The fifth (and final) consecutive GERB victory, with their weakest result until this point. Despite that, due to the continuing growth of the GERB "turnout machine" (especially in many former BSP strongholds) and the utter collapse of BSP, GERB won nearly as many municipalities as in 2009. DB is a coalition of conservative opponents of GERB which was very successful in Sofia, but was hardly present outside of the capital. ITN, yet another personal party (this time led by musician and showman Slavi Trifonov) finished second. VMRO is a nationalist party that has generally run as part of various coalitions (entering parliament as part of the United Patriots in 2017) while almost managing to enter parliament in this election on their own. GERB was unable to form a goverment, while ITN proved unwilling to seriously try (likely hoping for a better results the next time around). So for the first time in modern Bulgarian history no government could be formed after the election, leading to parliament being dissolved and a snap election called.
July 2021
ITN won, the first party other than GERB to do so since 2005. However ITN again failed (or were unwilling, it's debatable) to form a government, leading to the third parliamentary election in 2021.
November 2021
The deadlock was finally broken, after PP - moderate reformist party founded by former ministers of the caretaker government that was appointed after the April election - managed to gather much of the anti-GERB vote, finished first and formed a coalition with other anti-GERB parties. BSP had their worst ever placing (fourth) and lowest percentage of votes ever received and won the fewest municipalities of any of their elections, losing some that they had always won before. Ironically, they still managed to enter the government as part of the coalition. An interesting trend is that GERB largely assumed the former position of BSP by winning nearly half of all municipalities, while losing all significant cities.