The winner of the presidential runoff in Bulgaria is Iliana Yotova/Andrey Gyurov. In the second round, Iliana Yotova and Kiril Valchev are competing against Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev. Election day ends at 8:00 p.m., and the first estimated results are expected after the closing of the sections.
In the first round on October 25, Yotova and Valchev received 34.7% of the votes, and Gyurov and Kandev - 31.9%. The difference between the two pairs was 2.8 percentage points. 528,951 valid votes were cast for Yotova and Valchev, and 528,951 for Gyurov and Kandev - 486,232. 1,525,034 people out of a total of 6,584,025 voters went to the polls, or nearly 23%.
How the runoff came about
The second round came about after none of the 27 presidential candidate pairs gathered the necessary majority in the first round. Kostadin Kostadinov and Petar Volgin came in third with 12.5% of the votes. The vote outside the country gave an advantage to Gyurov and Kandev, who received 45.7% against 22.7% for Yotova and Valchev.
The campaign between the two rounds
The runoff campaign was marked by the country's foreign policy course, the war in Ukraine, relations with Russia and Bulgaria's role in NATO. Iliyana Yotova, who serves as head of state, ran as an independent candidate with the support of "Progressive Bulgaria" and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. She advocated a diplomatic solution to the war and proposed a meeting of the six Black Sea countries to negotiate a moratorium on military action.
Andrei Gyurov, former deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank and former caretaker prime minister, received the support of the pro-Western reformist opposition. He stated: "I want Bulgaria to have its own voice in Europe. I want it to be a reliable ally in NATO that defends its interests with preparation, strong diplomacy and a clear position."
Rumen Radev, who supported Yotova, defined the choice as "between peace and war." The final winner will be the candidate who receives more valid votes for the presidential pair. If Yotova wins, she will become the first democratically elected female president of Bulgaria.
Sources: apnews.com, nova.bg, bntnews.bg