The eight political parties who won more than one per cent of the vote at the July 5 2009 general elections in Bulgaria will get just short of 200 million leva in state subsidies, provided that the newly-elected legislature sees out its full four-year term.

According to the law on political parties, every party that scores an election result of more than one per cent gets a state subsidy for the duration of the respective Parliament's term.

For every vote the parties have won, they get an annual stipend equal to five per cent of the minimum monthly salary for the respective year. Currently, the minimum monthly salary is set at 240 leva which means that parties would get 12 leva a year for each vote.

The party that won the biggest share of votes at the elections, Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov's Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), is set to receive about 20.14 million leva a year for its 1 678 641 votes.

The runner-up Coalition for Bulgaria, dominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, will get 8.98 million leva a year; the Movement for Right and Freedoms - 7.33 million leva; ultra-nationalist Ataka party - 4.75 million leva; the centre-right Blue Coalition 3.43 million leva; and the Order, Law and Justice party - 2.1 million leva a year.

The other two parties who won more the one per cent but failed to pass the four per cent election threshold - the LIDER-New Time coalition and the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) - will get 1.65 million leva and 1.53 million leva a year, respectively.

Overall, this means that every year, the parties will get a total of 49.9 million leva in state subsidies, or 199.6 million for four years. Should the minimum monthly salary increase at any point during the new Parliament's tenure, the state subsidy would rise accordingly.

According to the law, coalitions redistribute the money among their members in accordance with their internal coalition agreements. In case there is no such agreement in place, the money goes to the party which has been formed before the elections, has a court registration and has a group in Parliament.

The Ministry of Finance transfers the money from the state budget to the parties' respective accounts in four installments: by April 30, June 30, September 30 and December 20 of the respective year.

According to the law the money should be used for the parties' election activities, the work of their regional structures, to cover expenses of party events and any other expenses that may be incurred by their political activity.

Parties can not accept anonymous donations, donations from companies, sole proprietors, religious institutions and foreign embassies, companies and organisations. All these changes to the law were passed in January 2009.