Bulgarians vote in presidential election amid Black Sea drone attacks

Bulgarians went to the polls on Sunday to elect a president as the country grapples with the spread of Russia’s war in Ukraine to its Black Sea coast.

Incumbent President Iliana Iotova, 61, and former caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov, 50, led a field of 27 candidates, but neither is expected to win an outright majority.

The election comes after a series of drone strikes on merchant vessels off Bulgaria’s coast, which are believed to have killed around two dozen international seafarers. While the government has stopped short of directly blaming Russia, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the attacks “benefit the Russian Federation”. Both Iotova and Gyurov condemned the strikes.

Gyurov, backed by pro‑Western reformist parties, has voiced strong support for Ukraine and signed a security cooperation agreement with Kyiv during his brief tenure as prime minister. Iotova, who assumed the presidency in January after Radev entered the parliamentary race, advocates a more neutral stance and calls for a diplomatic end to the war.

Polls by Alpha Research gave Iotova 41 % of the vote and Gyurov 28 %. With turnout expected below 40 % of the 6.6 million registered voters, a second round is likely on 1 November.

Source: Al Jazeera. Photo: Наталья Синюткина / Pexels.