Bulgarians head to polls to elect new president

6.59 million eligible voters can choose between 27 presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairs. Among them, 46,001 people are first-time voters.

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m., although voting may continue until 9 p.m. if voters are still waiting to cast their ballots, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC) election timetable. The same opening and closing hours apply to polling stations abroad, in local time.

Machine voting will be available at 9,373 polling stations across Bulgaria, with two machines installed at 2,249 of them. A total of 11,622 voting machines will be used.

On July 30, 2026, the National Assembly decided to introduce exclusively machine-based voting at polling stations with more than 300 registered voters.

Voting Abroad

Bulgarian citizens abroad will be able to vote at 613 polling stations in 60 countries. Machine voting will be available at 242 stations, including 24 equipped with two machines.

The largest number of polling stations abroad will be in the United Kingdom, with 82, followed by Turkiye with 78, Germany with 70, Spain with 67 and the United States with 44.

The addresses of polling stations abroad are available on the Foreign Ministry's website and through the CEC's Elections 360° application.

On July 30, Parliament repealed the limit of 20 polling stations outside diplomatic and consular missions in countries outside the European Union.

Voting Arrangements for Persons with Disabilities

A total of 1,500 tactile ballot templates will be printed to assist visually impaired voters using paper ballots. The templates cover the entire ballot and feature square and circular openings for marking a choice, as well as Braille markings identifying the numbers of parties and nomination committees and the "I support none of the candidates" option.

Voters with visual impairments or mobility difficulties will be able to cast their ballots at designated accessible polling stations, generally located on the ground floors of buildings. They may choose a suitable polling station, and visually impaired voters can vote independently.

Where a voter has a visual, hearing or other disability that prevents them from completing the necessary voting procedures, the chair of the section election commission may authorise assistance from a person designated by the voter, including when voting by machine.

Elections 360° Application

The CEC's Elections 360° application provides voters with information about the electoral process and a complete list of presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

It also includes an interactive map of polling stations and a machine-voting simulator allowing users to practise the voting procedure.

Voters can use the application to check their polling station address through the electronic services of the Directorate General for Civil Registration and Administrative Services (GRAO) and submit reports directly to the CEC by email.

The application also allows users to view results from individual section election commissions by geographical location, including those abroad. Election-day activities at polling stations can be followed in real time through the evideo.bg portal.

The application's section for election commissions will publish electronic versions of protocols recording paper-ballot results, machine-voting results and verification counts.

Announcement of Results

Immediately after voting ends, but no earlier than 8 p.m., section election commissions will establish the results, draw up their protocols and submit them to the respective regional election commissions. The same procedure applies to polling stations abroad.

Within 48 hours of the close of voting, regional election commissions must establish and announce the results in their respective constituencies and submit the relevant protocols to the CEC.

The CEC will publish interim results from the processing of section election commission protocols on its website, broken down by polling station.

No later than 48 hours after the close of voting, the CEC is to announce the election results and, if a candidate pair has been elected, the names of the president-elect and vice president-elect.

Possible Second Round

If no presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair is elected in the first round, the CEC will identify the two pairs receiving the most votes and schedule a runoff election for November 1, 2026.

Under the Bulgarian Constitution, a candidate is elected president in the first round if they receive more than half of the valid votes cast, provided that more than half of all eligible voters have participated in the election.

As Qazinform News Agency previously reported, former Vice President Iliana Iotova became Bulgaria’s new President after the Constitutional Court ruled on January 23 that the term of office of Head of State Rumen Radev was terminated prematurely following his resignation.