Bulgaria’s Iotova wins presidential runoff, near-final results show

Bulgaria's acting President Iliana Iotova emerged victorious in the presidential runoff election, according to near-final results released by the Central Election Commission on Monday. Iotova's triumph marked her as the country's first elected female head of state, despite a voter turnout that was notably low. The final tally, after processing 99.95% of precinct protocols, saw Iotova and her running mate Valchev secure 57.58% of the vote, amounting to approximately 1.1 million ballots.

Their opponents Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev garnered 39.47% of the vote, or around 749,500 votes. An additional 2.95% of voters opted for the "I support no one" option.

The runoff election was necessitated by a first round on October 25 in which no candidate managed to achieve a majority, thus requiring a second round. Iotova and Valchev had come out on top in this initial round with 34.6% of the vote, ahead of Gyurov and Kandev, who received 32% each. Their advance to the second round came as Iotova had served as vice president prior to stepping in as acting president in January.

This position was a result of Radev's resignation to contest the parliamentary race, which he won on a ticket perceived by many analysts as having Kremlin-friendly tendencies.

Both Iotova and Valchev have publicly expressed their support for Radev, and together they have advocated for a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.