Bulgaria votes for president as Russia ties, Ukraine war dominate runoff campaign between Iliana Iotova and Andrey Gyurov

Bulgarians started voting Sunday (Nov 1) in a presidential runoff between two candidates in the sidelines of the Russia-Ukraine war. The election comes immediately after a series of drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea. Bulgaria's President Iliana Iotova, who favours dialogue with Moscow and opposes military aid to Ukraine, is facing former interim Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov backed by the pro-Western opposition. Polls opened at 7 am (0500 GMT) and will close at 8 pm.

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Bulgaria's political picture

Bulgaria is going through a five-year political crisis, rotating through seven inconclusive snap elections because divided parties couldn't form a stable coalition. In 2025, mass anti-corruption protests and public outrage over a controversial budget forced Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and his conservative coalition government to resign. Till Jan 2026, no party was able to form stable coalition government. In January 2026, with an aim to break the political deadlock and establish a "powerful political alternative," Rumen Radev resigned from the presidency. The real executive authority in Bulgaria is with the Prime Minister. Radev deliberately stepped down a year before his term ended to launch a new, centre-left populist party—Progressive Bulgaria (PB) — allowing him to run for Prime Minister. Under the Bulgarian constitution, if a sitting president resigns, the Vice President immediately takes over the office. Iotova was elected vice-president alongside Radev in 2021, so she took o over as the President.

Now, under Bulgarian constitution, the president must choose the Caretaker PM from a strictly limited list of ten high-level institutional officials. that is how Andrey Gyurov became the caretaker PM. In April 2026 snap elections, Radev's new party Radev's gamble paid off. His new party won a landslide majority, ending the interim caretaker period and allowing Radev to officially take over as the regular Prime Minister in May.

The 5-year presidential term has expired and now Bulgarians are voting to choose their president. The first round of voting took place last Sunday (Oct 25). Under Bulgarian rules, a candidate must win over 50 per cent of the vote and total voter turnout must exceed 50 per cent to win outright. No candidate won a majority, and final runoff is being held today.

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Presidential candidate and campaign

According to exit polls, Iotova won 35 percent of the vote in the first round last week, and Gyurov won 32 percent. Iotova, is a longtime ally ofRadev, supports Bulgaria's membership of the EU and NATO but has presented herself as a "president of peace" and strongly advocated negotiations with Russia. If successful in the runoff, she would become the first woman ever elected president in the country of 6.4 million people.

Gyurov, 50, a former deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, has sharply criticised Radev's foreign policy and strongly supports Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic ties. His brief term as caretaker PM was notable for signing a security cooperation agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and cracking down on voter fraud.

After the first round, Gyurov said Bulgaria faced a choice "between two personalities, two directions, and two ways of exercising presidential powers". He said that the presidential election represented a choice between “peace and war.” Iotova, meanwhile, insisted that “peace can come only through negotiations.” The campaign was also marked by accusations from the opposition that Radev had used state resources and his office to campaign for Iotova, in breach of electoral law. The Central Election Commission rejected the allegations, but Gyurov's campaign team is appealing the decision in court.