Yotova wins Bulgarian presidency with 57.6% in runoff

Acting President Iliana Yotova won Bulgaria’s presidential runoff with 57.6 per cent of the vote, election officials said Monday, making her the first woman elected to the post.

Yotova and her running mate, Kiril Valchev, took 1,093,852 votes on Sunday, against 750,251 votes, or 39.5 per cent, for former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov and running mate Georgi Kandev, according to Central Election Commission data from all tally sheets reported by the Bulgarian News Agency. Another 56,080 people chose “none of the above.” The agency spells the candidates’ names Iotova and Gurov.

Gyurov, backed by reformist pro-Western opposition parties, conceded. “This is how the Bulgarian citizens have voted,” he said, The Associated Press reported on PBS.

Yotova, 62, became acting president in January when Rumen Radev stepped down to run for parliament. Radev is now prime minister, and his Moscow-friendly Progressive Bulgaria party won 131 of 240 seats in April and endorsed her. AP said observers warn that her win keeps the presidency in the hands of the governing majority, which could weaken checks and balances.

AP said she is expected to continue Radev’s European course while favouring better relations with Russia and the lifting of sanctions. In a debate, she said “peace could come only through negotiations” in Ukraine and proposed a meeting of the six Black Sea countries to sign a moratorium on hostilities. AP said both she and Radev were evasive on possible Russian involvement in drone attacks in the region.

The campaign unfolded after deadly strikes on Black Sea shipping. Our earlier report covered the first round on Oct. 25, when Novinite said Yotova took 34.8 per cent and Gyurov 32 per cent.

Bulgarians abroad went the other way. Gyurov won the overseas vote with 56.4 per cent to Yotova’s 41.4 per cent, the commission’s figures showed. Novinite reported he took 67.5 per cent in the United States, while Yotova took 84 per cent of the votes cast in Russia.

Turnout figures varied. Novinite reported an official commission figure of 19.33 per cent as of 4 p.m. on voting day, and 27.5 per cent in a parallel count by the agency Trend. A final turnout figure was not in the reports reviewed.

The Bulgarian presidency is largely ceremonial and has no executive powers, AP said. The president leads the armed forces, can veto legislation, signs international treaties and appoints ambassadors, and direct election gives the office added political weight. Terms last five years, with a limit of two.

Novinite reported that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was among the leaders who congratulated Yotova. The vote comes as the United States prepares to mediate Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi.

File photo: Official portrait of Iliana Yotova as president, January 2026. Licence: CC BY 2.5 BG, via Wikimedia Commons.

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