The election campaign for president and vice president has begun. The vote is scheduled for October 25th, and 27 registered presidential candidate pairs are participating in the race. The Central Election Commission has already drawn the numbers by which the candidates will be arranged on the ballot.
The campaign will continue until 24:00 on October 23rd. In its decision, the CEC states: “The election campaign for the elections for President and Vice President of the Republic on October 25, 2026 opens at 00:00 on September 25, 2026“
Machine voting in most polling stations
Machine voting will be produced in all polling stations, except for those with fewer than 300 voters. The exceptions also include polling stations with a mobile ballot box, polling stations in medical institutions, nursing homes and other specialized social service institutions, as well as polling stations on vessels flying the Bulgarian flag.
Outside the country, machines will not be used in polling stations for which fewer than 300 applications have been submitted, or in which fewer than 300 voters voted in the last elections. The addresses of 11,778 polling stations have been published by the CEC.
18,430 applications for voting abroad
As of 11:00 on September 23, 18,430 Bulgarian citizens from 66 countries had registered to participate in the vote outside the country, announced Boryana Stoynova from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Applications can be submitted until September 29.
The largest number of applications came from Turkey - over 7,000. There were nearly 3,000 from the United Kingdom, about 1,500 from Germany, over 1,300 from the United States, and over 700 from Spain.
The elections are being held after the early termination of Rumen Radev's powers. On January 19, he announced that he would submit his resignation to the Constitutional Court, and on January 23, the court established its submission and terminated his mandate early. The National Assembly scheduled the presidential vote for October 25 at the end of July.
Sources: BTA