Bulgaria's presidential runoff begins

Bulgarians are going to the polls on Sunday to vote in the second round of the country's presidential election.

Nearly 6.6 million voters are eligible to choose between incumbent President Iliana Iotova, running with Kiril Valchev as her vice-presidential candidate, and Andrey Gurov, who is seeking the presidency with Georgi Kandev as his running mate.

The Iotova-Valchev ticket, backed by the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, among others, finished first in the October 25 first round securing 34.76% of the votes.

The Gurov-Kandev ticket, supported by the parties We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, came second among the 27 candidate pairs with 31.95%.

The first exit polls are expected to be released at 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT), immediately after the close of the polls. Official results are due no later than Wednesday.

The Bulgarian president and vice president are elected directly by voters for a five-year term. Iotova's term is set to expire at the end of January 2027.

Iotova, 62, was elected vice president twice, in 2016 and 2021, serving alongside President Rumen Radev. In accordance with the country's Constitution, she succeeded Radev as head of state after he resigned in January this year. Before that, she served on the National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party from 2000 to 2016, as well as in the Bulgarian National Assembly and the European Parliament.

Valchev is director general of the Bulgarian News Agency.

Gurov, an adjunct professor of finance at the American University in Bulgaria, has less political experience than Iotova. He served as Bulgaria's caretaker prime minister for 78 days in the first half of this year and chaired the parliamentary group of We Continue the Change in two legislatures from December 2021 to February 2023.

Kandev is a former career police officer who served as acting secretary general at the Ministry of Interior for several months this year.