Bulgaria’s 2026 presidential elections: Second round is attracting higher voter turnout than the record-low first
As voting proceeded on November 1 in the second and final round of Bulgaria’s 2026 presidential elections, there were signs that voter turnout would be higher than in the first, held on October 25.
However, voter turnout on October 25 was the lowest not only in all democratic elections of a president in Bulgaria, but also in all national elections since the country became a democracy.
The runoff vote is between the ticket of incumbent head of state Iliana Yotova and BTA chief Kiril Vulchev and that of former caretaker prime minister Andrei Gyurov and former Interior Ministry chief secretary Georgi Kandev, with a simply majority needed to win on November 1.
Official figures from the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that while at 11am on October 25 voter turnout was 5.81 per cent, at the same time on November 1 it was 6.11 per cent.
Voter turnout at 4pm on October 25 was 15.95 per cent, and at the same time on November 1, was 19.33 per cent, according to the CEC. On November 1, Alpha Research estimated it to be 21.6 per cent at 4pm, while the Market Links polling agency put voter turnout at 20.6 per cent at 4.30pm.
In the October 25 first round of the presidential elections, voter turnout when polls closed at 8pm was 22.98 per cent, according to the CEC.
Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement on November 1 that as of 2.30pm, a total of 461 reports of violations of electoral law had been received.
Of these, 318 were about vote buying, 49 about illegal canvassing, one for corporate voting, while the others related to sundry breaches of electoral law.
The ministry said that 10 criminal proceedings had been initiated. A total of 1872 warning protocols had been drawn up, with the largest number in the ministry’s Sofia directorate, 438, followed by 276 in Plovdiv and 226 in Pazardzhik.
Exit polls may legally be made public only after voting ends in Bulgaria at 8pm on November 1.
The CEC has three days after election day to announce the final official results of the vote.
