Bulgaria’s April 2026 elections: Ex-president Radev’s party wins most votes – exit polls
Progressive Bulgaria, the electoral coalition around former president Roumen Radev, won by far the largest share of votes in the country’s April 19 2026 early parliamentary elections, according to exit polls by the Alpha Research and Market Links agencies, released as voting ended.
According to the Alpha Research poll, Progressive Bulgaria got 37.5 per cent, far ahead of former prime minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF coalition, 16.2 per cent.
In third place is the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition, 14.3 per cent.
Fourth is the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning, led by Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski, 8.4 per cent.
Kostadin Kostadinov’s pro-Russian party Vuzrazhdane got 4.9 per cent and the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left coalition got 4.1 per cent.
According to Market Links, Progressive Bulgaria got 38.9 per cent, GERB-UDF 15.4 per cent, WCC-DB 13.6 per cent, MRF – New Beginning 7.5 per cent, Vuzrazhdane 5.1 per cent and BSP – United Left 4.1 per cent.
The threshold for getting a share of seats in Bulgaria’s National Assembly is at least four per cent of valid votes.
Alpha Research offered a projection of seat distribution in the 52nd National Assembly: Progressive Bulgaria 105, GERB-UDF 46, WCC-DB 40, MRF – New Beginning 24, Vuzrazhdane 14 and BSP – United Left 11.
Market Links’s projection was Progressive Bulgaria 110, GERB-UDF 44, WCC-DB 39, MRF – New Beginning 21, Vuzrazhdane 14 and BSP – United Left 12.
Projections were that voter turnout in this election could exceed that in the succession of seven previous parliamentary elections that began in April 2021.
Alpha Research said that voter turnout at 7pm was 46.7 per cent while Market Links said that it was 47.2 per cent at that time.
As The Sofia Globe reported earlier, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that as of 4pm, voter turnout was 34.6 per cent, about nine points ahead of turnout at the same time in the October 2024 parliamentary elections.
The highest voter turnout in recent parliamentary elections was 49.1 per cent in April 2021.
Caretaker Deputy Foreign Minister Radi Naidenov told a briefing on the afternoon of April 19 that an “extremely high turnout” was being observed at polling stations at Bulgaria’s diplomatic missions abroad.
Radev is a new entrant in Bulgarian parliamentary politics, have stepped down in January 2026 as head of state, ending his second and final term as president a year before it was due to expire.
Should his coalition’s result in the exit poll be borne out by the final results certified by the CEC, it would be the largest parliamentary group in the 52nd National Assembly, meaning that in line with the constitution Radev would be entitled to be handed the first of a succession of mandates to seek to form a government.
Radev’s main campaign message has been about opposing the “oligarchy” and he has ruled out a ruling majority involving Borissov’s and Peevski’s parties, while also dismissing working with WCC-DB.
The April 19 election day passed without serious problems, according to the CEC.
Problems with some voting machines were reported throughout the course of April 19, leading in some cases to voting being done using only paper ballots. However, the E-government Ministry downplayed this, saying that the malfunctioning machines represented only a tiny proportion – about 0.5 per cent – of the total.
The run-up to the April 19 elections was preceded by the caretaker government’s Interior Ministry conducting a high-profile crackdown on vote-buying, leading to arrests, pre-trial proceedings and confiscations of cash on a scale far outstripping previous elections.
