95% of Votes Counted: Yotova Leads Gyurov by 2.56 Points in Bulgaria’s Presidential Vote

Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said that presidential candidates Iliana Yotova and Andrey Gyurov are heading to a runoff on November 1 after 95.29% of polling station protocols had been processed, with Yotova holding a lead of 2.56 percentage points.

Interim results published on the CEC website as of 6 a.m. on October 26, 2026, put Yotova and her running mate, Kiril Valchev, in first place with 34.598% of the vote, or 506,628 ballots. Both were nominated by an initiative committee.

Gyurov and his running mate, Georgi Kandev, also nominated by an initiative committee, ranked second with 32.038%, equivalent to 469,143 votes.

The ticket of Kostadin Kostadinov and Petar Volgin, representing Revival, came third with 12.624%, or 184,850 votes. Radostin Vasilev and Krasimir Manov, nominated by MECH, placed fourth with 4.605%, receiving 67,432 votes.

The option “I do not support anyone” was selected by 4.416% of voters, or 64,668 people, placing it fifth in the standings. Ivelin Mihaylov and Yuliana Mateeva of the "Greatness" party ranked sixth with 3.807%, or 55,743 votes.

Ivan Hristanov and Stoyanka Cherkezova, nominated by an initiative committee, were seventh with 2.412%, amounting to 35,321 votes.

The CEC’s interim figures also showed that 4.42% of voters, or 48,025 people, had chosen the “I do not support anyone” option in the ballot.

According to data on the commission’s website, turnout stood at 15.95% as of 4 p.m. on October 25. Of the 6,637,238 eligible voters, 1,058,669 had cast ballots.

Among ballots cast abroad, the Gyurov-Kandev ticket was leading with 45.225% based on 96.57% of polling station protocols processed. Yotova and Valchev were second with 23.143%.

The relatively low turnout has helped election commissions process and submit polling station protocols more quickly than in previous elections. More than 95% of the protocols had already been processed by the time of the CEC’s latest update, reflecting an unusually rapid pace of data processing on the commission’s website.