Bulgaria’s 2026 presidential elections: Voter turnout on October 25 appears set for record low
By the late afternoon on October 25 2026, voter turnout in Bulgaria’s presidential elections appeared headed to a record low compared with the same stage of the country’s previous presidential elections.
For a presidential candidate to win at the first round, voter turnout must be no less than 50 per cent and that candidate must win at least 50 per cent of valid votes.
If these criteria are not met, the elections must proceed to a second round between the two tickets with the largest shares of votes, with November 1 set aside for this, according to a vote by Parliament.
The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that at 4pm on October 25, voter turnout was 16.04 per cent. According to the Alpha Research opinion polling agency, at 4pm on October 25, voter turnout was an estimated 18.5 per cent. The Market Links agency said that voter turnout at 4.30pm was 18 per cent. The archive of the official website of the CEC shows that at 4pm in Bulgaria’s November 2021 presidential elections, voter turnout was 25.72 per cent.
The CEC website showed that voter turnout at 11am on October 25 was 5.8 per cent, compared with 8.62 per cent at the same time in the November 2021 presidential elections.
In Bulgaria’s first democratic elections of a head of state, held in 1992, voter turnout at the close of the first round was 75.39 per cent. This was followed by first-round voter turnout of 63.14 per cent in 1996; 41.63 per cent in 2001; 44.11 per cent in 2006; 52.29 per cent in 2011; 56.28 per cent in 2016; and 40.47 per cent in 2021.
In the second round in 2021, voter turnout was 34.85 per cent, a record low for a second round of a Bulgarian presidential election. Should the 2026 presidential elections go to a second round, it remains to be seen whether that record would remain intact.
Media reports from Istanbul on October 25 said that voters in Bulgaria’s presidential elections were staying away from the polling stations to an unprecedented extent. In Bulgaria’s Kurdzhali district, where many Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity live, polling station officials also had little to do, reports said. The CEC said that voter turnout in the Kurdzhali district at 4pm was 6.77 per cent. At the same time in the first round of the 2021 presidential elections, it was 19.06 per cent, according to the CEC archive.
The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which previously had an electorate largely based among Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity, has neither nominated nor endorsed a candidate in the 2026 presidential elections.
Similarly, Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, formerly for more than a decade Bulgaria’s strongest political force, has neither nominated nor endorsed a ticket. According to a report by Bulgarian National Radio on October 25, Borissov said that his party was not boycotting the elections, adding that “the day is long” and he would go to vote “when I see fit”.
October 25 reports also said that turnout in Roma ethnic areas was at a low.
Reports from London and Berlin described voter turnout in the UK and in Germany as noticeably lower than in previous Bulgarian elections.
On October 25, voting, in which Bulgarians are choosing from among 27 tickets, continues until 8pm. If there are still queues at 8pm, election officials are empowered to extend voting, but no later than 9pm. These same hours and rules apply at polling stations abroad, on the basis of local times.
Throughout the course of the election day, various political leaders urged voters to go to the polls.
(Archive photo: Interior Ministry)
Bulgaria’s 2026 presidential elections: The Sofia Globe’s factfile
