Bulgaria’s acting President Iliana Iotova has won the country’s presidential election, near-final results from the Central Election Commission showed on Monday, November 2. The Bulgaria presidential runoff on November 1 gave the Iotova-Valchev ticket 57.58% of the vote, or about 1.1 million ballots, with 99.95% of precinct protocols processed. If the commission confirms the result, Iotova will become Bulgaria’s first elected female head of state.
Iotova’s opponents, Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev, received 39.47% of the vote, or about 749,500 ballots. About 2.95% of voters chose the “I support no one” option. Turnout in the Bulgaria presidential runoff stayed under 30%, among the lowest ever recorded in a Bulgarian national election, according to reports of the commission figures. Exit polls on election night had put Iotova first with a narrower lead, between 50.7% and 52.5%.
Bulgaria presidential runoff: the result in full
The near-final count widened a gap that had been narrow in the first round on October 25. In that round, Iotova and her running mate Kiril Valchev led with 34.76% of the vote, while Gyurov and Kandev took 31.95%. Turnout in the first round was 22.98%, the lowest since the end of communism in Bulgaria. No ticket won a majority, so the Bulgaria presidential runoff was required under the country’s election rules, with the vote set for November 1.
Exit polls released on election night by Alpha Research, Market Links, Trend and Myara all placed Iotova ahead, but each showed a smaller margin than the near-final count. Estimated turnout in the runoff ranged from about 25.5% to 29.1%, depending on the polling agency. The gap between the exit polls and the counted vote is common in elections with low turnout, where the voters who do turn out can differ from the wider electorate that pollsters model.
Bulgaria presidential runoff: who the candidates are
Iotova ran as an independent, with backing from Rumen Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria party and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, among others. She had served as Radev’s vice president before taking over as acting president in January 2026, when Radev resigned to enter the parliamentary race. Radev went on to lead his newly formed Progressive Bulgaria party into the parliamentary elections of April 19, 2026, in which the party won an outright majority, the first any party or alliance had held since 1997. Radev has served as prime minister since May 8.
Gyurov, a former caretaker prime minister, had the support of the pro-Western reformist alliance We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria. His ticket in the Bulgaria presidential runoff presented a different direction on foreign policy from Iotova’s camp. Gyurov conceded as initial counts on November 2 pointed to a clear Iotova lead, with early figures giving her about 58% of the vote against about 38% for Gyurov, according to reports citing polling agencies, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Like Radev, Iotova opposes military aid to Ukraine and favours dialogue with Russia, and both have called for a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine. Radev’s ticket has been described by many political analysts as Kremlin-friendly, a label his supporters reject.
Bulgaria presidential runoff: what happens next
The Central Election Commission still has to announce the final results formally. Once confirmed, Iotova’s new term is set to begin when the current presidential mandate ends in January 2027. Her win puts the presidency and the government in the hands of political allies, since Radev leads the government as prime minister and backed her candidacy. That alignment is likely to shape Bulgaria’s stance inside the European Union and towards Russia and Ukraine in the months ahead.
Iotova, 62, moves from acting president to elected president after ten months in the post, having taken over the presidency when Radev stepped down. Her election in the Bulgaria presidential runoff is a first for Bulgaria, which has never before elected a woman as head of state, although she has already held the office on an acting basis since January.
For now, the counted vote in the Bulgaria presidential runoff leaves little doubt about the outcome, even with the formal announcement still to come. Iotova moves from acting president to elected president after ten months in the post. The commission’s near-final figures, with almost every precinct counted, gave her a lead of more than 18 percentage points over Gyurov and Kandev. The next step is the formal declaration, followed by the start of her full term in January.