July–August 1990 Bulgarian presidential election

July–August 1990 Bulgarian presidential election

President
24 July–1 August 1990
400 members of the Grand National Assembly 267 votes needed to win
Nominee Zhelyu Zhelev Party SDS Electoral vote 284
President before election Nikolai Todorov (acting) Independent Elected President Zhelyu Zhelev SDS
Vice-President
1 August 1990
Nominee Atanas Semerdzhiev Party BSP Electoral vote 383
Vice President before election None Elected Vice President Atanas Semerdzhiev BSP

Indirect presidential elections were held in Bulgaria in July and August 1990. A new president and vice president were elected by members of the Grand National Assembly following the resignation of president Petar Mladenov on 20 July 1990 less than four months after he was elected in April. Voting took place over six rounds, with no candidate able to achieve a two-thirds majority until the sixth and final round when Zhelyu Zhelev was the sole candidate.

Candidates

On 30 July Alexander Lilov stated on behalf of the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party that the decision to withdraw the candidacy of Chavdar Kjuranov was "driven by the desire and the will of our party to get out of the outlined presidential crisis and today to elect president our republic." Lilov added that, "we will support one of the two candidates who puts politics of national consensus above party interests."

The next day, Peter Dertliev also withdrew his candidacy.

On 31 July Elena Kircheva reported the withdrawal of the candidature of Viktor Valkov on behalf of the parliamentary group of Agrarians, with Valkov saying "I do not feel confident enough at this time to proceed to the leadership of the country given that I see now in parliament a group of about 130 people on whose support I probably will not count."

On 31 July Stoyan Ganev nominated Zhelyu Zhelev as a candidate for head of state on behalf of the Union of Democratic Forces. On 1 August Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov said that the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party would support Zhelev, Viktor Valkov doing this on behalf of the BAP, BSP and UDF, and Julius Bahnev – on behalf of MRF. This provided the required majority and Zhelev was elected to the post.

Results

Candidate		Party	First round	Second round	Third round	Fourth round	Fifth round	Sixth round
	Chavdar Kjuranov	Bulgarian Socialist Party	217	211	190	194
	Peter Dertliev	Party of Bulgarian Social Democrats	130	131	146	146	130
	Viktor Valkov	Bulgarian Agrarian National Union	36	37	41	37	254
	Zhelyu Zhelev	Union of Democratic Forces						284
	Against		1		1			108
Total			390	384	387	384	386	392

Election of Vice President

In the original nomination BSP nominated for vice president Velko Valkanov, UDF – Petar Beron and Agrarian not rising contender. Upon withdrawal of the presidential candidates Chavdar Kjuranov Peter Dertliev and Viktor Valkov and nominating Zhelyu Zhelev also not available candidate for deputy. On August 1, immediately after being elected, Zhelyu Zhelev available for VP General Atanas Semerdzhiev. His nomination is subject to an open vote by show of hands and he was elected with the votes of 383 deputies, 7 vote "against" and 2 abstain.