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

Bulgaria’s acting President Iliana Iotova won the presidential runoff election, near-final results from the Central Election Commission showed on Monday, becoming the country’s first elected female head of state amid low voter turnout. With 99.95% of precinct protocols processed, the Iotova-Valchev ticket had won 57.58% of the vote, or about 1.1 million ballots, while opponents Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev received 39.47%, or about 749,500 votes. About 2.95% of voters chose the “I support no one” option. The runoff followed a first round on October 25 that gave no candidate the majority needed for an outright victory. Iotova and Valchev led with 34.6% of the vote, ahead of Gyurov and Kandev on 32%, advancing to Sunday’s second round. Iotova, formerly vice president, became acting president in January after Radev resigned to enter the parliamentary race, which he won on a ticket many political analysts consider Kremlin-friendly. Radev supports Iotova and they have both called for a diplomatic end to the Ukraine war.