Bulgaria's presidential first round draws 16.04% turnout by 16:00 local time

Turnout at the close of the first round

Bulgarians went to the polls on Sunday, 25 October 2026, for the first round of the presidential election. The Central Election Commission reported that 16.04% of voters had cast ballots by 16:00 local time, which is 15:00 in Poland. The news agency BGNES put turnout at about 15% by 15:00 local time and called it a record low. Turnout was lower than at the previous presidential election in 2021, and politicians have called for voters to mobilise.

The contenders and pre-vote polls

The leading ticket is that of current president Iliana Iotova, a former Party of European Socialists member of the European Parliament, running with Kiril Vâlcev, director of the Bulgarian news agency. Polls cited by the journalist Vladimir Mitev on the eve of the vote gave Iotova and Vâlcev more than 40%. The ticket of former interim prime minister Andrei Ghiurov and Gheorghi Kandev, who was secretary of the Interior Ministry in Ghiurov's cabinet, was put at roughly 26-27%. The sovereigntist Renaissance party, with Kostadin Kostadinov and MEP Petar Volghin, was put at about 10-11%. Tickets with openly pro-Russian messages trailed well behind, as did an ecological and anti-corruption pair.

Criticism of the campaign

In an interview with Adevărul, Mitev argued that the race never became a real contest of ideas. He said no debate had taken place between Iotova and Ghiurov.

In my opinion, there was no campaign in the true sense of the word.

Live coverage of the vote described a campaign marked by drone attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea and by scandals over pardons. Coverage also framed the election as a referendum on the first months of governing by Progressive Bulgaria. Six named contenders and 22 other candidates were listed on the ballot.

Backdrop and what comes next

No first-round results appear in the source material, so the outcome is not yet known. Live coverage said the vote will determine who goes through to a runoff on 1 November.