Today is the last day of the election campaign for the presidential runoff. The campaign between the two rounds ends at 24:00, according to the decision of the Central Election Commission. On Sunday, November 1, the candidate pairs Iliana Yotova – Kiril Valchev and Andrey Gyurov – Georgi Kandev will face off in the second round.
October 31 is a day for reflection. During it and on election day itself, no election campaigning is allowed, as well as the announcement of results from sociological surveys before the end of election day.
The two pairs enter the runoff with close results
The second round was reached after neither candidate pair collected the necessary votes to elect a president in the first round. Iliyana Yotova and Kiril Valchev received 528,951 valid votes, and Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev - 486,232. 1,525,034 out of 6,584,025 voters voted in the first round, the Central Election Commission announced through the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency.
In recent days, the two contenders have directed their messages to a wider circle of voters. Their only live television debate was held on October 29 on Bulgarian National Television. In his closing remarks, Andrey Gyurov said: “We want to look back after the next five years and say: we did a good job.“ Iliana Yotova called on citizens to exercise their right to vote and linked the vote to the need for higher activity.
Addresses on BNT and BNR are today
On the last day of the campaign, the two candidate pairs have the right to address the BNT and BNR programs. After a public draw conducted by the CEC, Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev will be the first, followed by Iliana Yotova and Kiril Valchev. Each address can last up to 10 minutes and is free of charge.
Election Day on November 1 will begin at 7:00 a.m. and will last until 8:00 p.m. If there are voters in front of the polling stations who have not voted, the time may be extended, but no later than 9:00 p.m. There is no threshold for voter turnout in the runoff election - the winner is the pair that received the most valid votes.
Sources: bta.bg, bntnews.bg