Sofia, November 18 : .A second round election will be held on Sunday to elect the new President of Bulgaria.
According to the election commission, none of the four candidates for the initial polls of November 14 received enough votes to win the office.The final results from the first round showed that Rumen Radev, the incumbent president, received 49.52% of votes, while Anastas Gerdjikov, his opponent, received 22.83%.This paved the way for Sunday’s runoff.
Gerdjikov and Radev were among the 23 top candidates.
According to the commission, 6,691,150 eligible voters were represented, but 2,687.307 cast their votes.
The commission stated that no President was elected because less than half of eligible voters cast ballots and that none of the candidates got more votes than the other.
According to the Bulgarian Constitution, the winner of the runoff is the candidate with the highest number of votes.
Radev, 58, was supported in the first round by several political parties, including Continue the Change and the Bulgarian Socialist Party.His opponent, however, was supported by the centre-right GERB party.
The Commander-in-Chief of Bulgaria’s Armed Forces is the President.He also has the prerogatives to appoint a Caretaker Government and dissolve Parliament.
For a term of five years, the President is directly elected by the people.
Radev will be retiring at the end January 2022.
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