Bulgaria Elects First Woman President as Yotova Wins Runoff With 57.6%

Bulgaria's acting president, Iliana Yotova, has won the country's presidential runoff election, becoming the first woman ever elected to the nation's highest office. Near-final results from the Central Election Commission showed Yotova and her running mate, Kiril Valchev, taking 57.58% of the vote, or roughly 1.1 million ballots.

Her opponent, former interim prime minister Andrey Gyurov, backed by pro-Western opposition parties, finished with 39.47%, or about 749,500 votes. Gyurov conceded defeat at a press conference in Sofia, saying voters had spoken and the result had to be accepted.

The runoff on Sunday, November 1, followed a first round on October 25 in which no candidate won an outright majority. Yotova led that round with 34.76% against Gyurov's 31.95%, then widened her margin considerably in the second round.

Yotova, 62, had served as vice president before taking over as acting president in January 2026, when then-president Rumen Radev resigned to run for parliament. Radev went on to become prime minister after his Progressive Bulgaria party won an outright parliamentary majority in April, and Yotova ran with that party's backing.

The campaign centered heavily on Bulgaria's position on Russia's war in Ukraine. Yotova opposed sending additional arms to Ukraine and campaigned for a diplomatic solution, a stance that contrasted sharply with her rival's pro-Western platform. Turnout was low, with under 30% of eligible voters casting ballots, among the lowest figures ever recorded in a Bulgarian national election.