Bulgarians headed to the polls on Sunday for the second round of the presidential election, choosing between acting President Iliana Yotova and former caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov after neither secured an outright majority in the first round.
According to the Central Election Commission, voter turnout reached 19.33% by 4 pm local time, compared with an initially reported 16.04% at the same stage of the October 25 vote. The first round recorded an overall turnout of just 22.98%, the lowest in Bulgaria’s post-communist history.
Polling stations opened at 7 am and were scheduled to close at 8 pm, with a possible one-hour extension for voters already waiting.
Yotova, backed by the governing Progressive Bulgaria party, is running alongside vice-presidential candidate Kiril Valchev. Gyurov, supported by pro-Western opposition parties, is contesting the election with Georgi Kandev.
After voting in Sofia, Yotova said she supported a Bulgaria capable of making independent decisions while maintaining a strong international presence.
“I voted for the president of peace. For seeking and finding national consensus through dialogue, for institutions that work for citizens, for a strong state with its own foreign policy in a strong Europe,” she told reporters.
Gyurov, meanwhile, emphasised security, stability and closer European integration.
“We can choose the future, not the past. The decision is now in the hands of all Bulgarian citizens,” he said.
The election follows April’s parliamentary vote, in which Progressive Bulgaria, led by former President Rumen Radev, secured 131 of the National Assembly’s 240 seats.
Yotova, previously Radev’s vice president, assumed the acting presidency following his resignation in January. She has opposed further military assistance to Ukraine and advocated diplomatic negotiations to end the war.
Gyurov, a former deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, has criticised the government’s approach to Ukraine and its coordination with NATO and European Union partners.
He has also warned that a Yotova victory would leave Bulgaria’s governing party without a meaningful political counterweight at the highest level of the state.
The runoff therefore presents voters with contrasting approaches to Bulgaria’s foreign policy, European security commitments and domestic political balance.