The Election of Bulgaria's Seventh President Will Be Decided in a Run-off on November 1

The election of Bulgaria’s seventh President will be decided in a run-off. Iliana Iotova and Kiril Valchev are leading Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev by a narrow margin.

The two presidential tickets will face each other in the decisive vote this Sunday, 1 November.

With 100% of the presidential election protocols processed, it is clear that Iliana Iotova and Andrey Gyurov will proceed to the run-off.

Iotova secured 34.8% of the vote, while Gyurov received 32%.

According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), voter turnout stood at 15.95% at 4 pm on election day.

With 100% of the protocols processed, the candidates following the top two were led by Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov, who received 12.5% of the vote. Almost eight percentage points behind him, Radostin Vasilev came fourth with 4.6%. Ivelin Mihaylov secured nearly 3.8%, placing fifth, while Ivan Hristanov completed the top six with 2.4% of the vote.

The “I do not support any candidate” option was chosen by 4.4% of voters, placing ahead of both Ivelin Mihaylov and Ivan Hristanov.

Iliana Iotova heads into the run-off as the leading candidate, but with a margin of only around 42,000 votes over Andrey Gyurov.

The results are clearly reflected on the map of Bulgaria. The Iotova–Valchev ticket won in 27 of the country’s 31 electoral districts. In the remaining four, Gyurov–Kandev received more votes.