Georgi Karasimeonov, "Parliamentary Elections of 1994 and the Development of the Bulgarian Party System," Party Politics , 1 (October, 1995), 579-587.

First Paragraph:
Bulgaria is the only country in the former communist bloc to have passed (at the time of writing) through a third round of parliamentary elections, together with a presidential election in 1992. Expectations were high that these elections would bring significant change and would help to overcome the political instability resulting from the volatile, uncertain and highly conflictual relations between the main parties and coalitions. It was expected also that the elections would stabilize the party system by determining which parties would remain viable players in the political process and by marginalizing those that were simply an accidental attribute of the emergent party pluralism after 1989.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Results of parliamentary elections (18 December 1994).
Table 2: Results for major parties from parliamentary elections in 1990, 1991, 1994 (%).

Last Paragraph:
If no unforeseen events halt the democratic process, a consolidation of the party system in Bulgaria is to be expected in the coming years. The 1994 elections stabilized the party landscape and on present evidence major shifts in party allegiances are not expected. This results from the fact that the contours of the transitional social structure and the political orientations that they have engendered since 1989 have acquired their own dynamic, and they will determine the evolution of the party system into the future.