Bulgarians vote in presidential runoff between Iotova and Gyurov

Bulgarians voted in a presidential runoff on November 1 between incumbent Iliana Iotova and former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov, after neither candidate won outright in the October 25 first round. The supplied reports describe voting underway but do not provide a final result. The first-round vote share was 34.76% for Iotova and 31.95% for Gyurov, a margin of 2.8 percentage points. Turnout was 23% of eligible voters, according to election officials cited in the reports. The ballot followed a contest among 27 candidate pairs. The candidates offered contrasting approaches to Russia and the war in Ukraine. Iotova advocated negotiations with Russia and opposed military aid to Ukraine, while Gyurov has expressed support for Ukraine and criticized Iotova for not directly blaming Russia for attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea. The attacks formed part of the security backdrop to the election. Bulgaria’s government said there was no evidence directly linking Moscow to the October vessel attacks. Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the attacks appeared to serve Russian interests. The accounts describe people missing or feared dead, but those descriptions differ in scope...