Bulgaria's presidential election heads to Nov. 1 runoff

Bulgaria’s presidential election will proceed to a runoff, as no candidate ticket secured more than 50% of the vote.

According to unofficial results from polling agency Alpha Research released by Bulgarian National Television (BNT), incumbent President Iliana Yotova and her vice presidential running mate Kiril Valchev received 34.6% of the vote, while former Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov and his running mate Georgi Kandev secured 32.7%.

Voter turnout stood at 22.5%.

Unofficial results from polling agency Myara put Yotova at 35% and Gyurov at 31.9%, with turnout reported at 22.2%.

Yotova and Gyurov will face each other in the runoff scheduled for Nov. 1.