Bulgaria

Editorial preview

Last updated: 27 October 2026. Map the General Editorial Team.

What is at stake in Bulgaria is the presidency of the Republic and the vice presidency, which are filled together. On 31 July 2026 the National Assembly decided that the election would be held on 25 October 2026 and that a new election, if one were required, would be held on 1 November. This hub treats those two dates as the Assembly’s dates. It does not invent a third day, and it does not describe a government’s programme. A programme is the text a pair or a committee publishes. The page that carries the pairs is the election page, in Bulgarian by default, with an English switch.

How a winner is decided, in Annex 2 of the Election Code as read for this hub, is a pair with more than half of the valid votes, and only if more than half of the voters took part. If no list is elected, the Central Election Commission schedules a new election within seven days between the two lists with the most votes. At that new election the pair with the most votes is elected. The Commission’s results table for 25 October, timed 15:00 on 26 October 2026, says every section protocol had been processed in the district commissions. No pair on that table has more than half of the printed distribution. The activity page showed midday and afternoon snapshots and said the evening figure is calculated later from protocols. This hub therefore does not say whether the turnout condition was met.

How the day runs, in articles 220 and 229 of the same code, is a room that opens at 7:00 when more than half the section commission is present, and voting from 7:00 to 20:00. Abroad those hours are local time. People still outside the room at 20:00 may vote, and not later than 21:00. The Commission may allow some sections to start at 5:00. This preview does not copy the identity papers a voter must show and does not describe the actions inside the room. The results legend distinguishes paper voting and machine voting. Readers who need the local instruction should open the Commission.

The history this hub will state as a list, and not as a copied count, is on the Commission’s results index: a presidential election on 14 November 2021 held with a National Assembly election, one on 6 November 2016, and one on 23 October 2011. Those archive totals were not opened row by row for this release, so they are not reprinted and not estimated. The ballot order for 2026 is the order of the October table. The public register is the Commission’s register. Naming a pair here without that table would add a label the preview did not take from the table, so the names stay on the election page.

Article 205, paragraph 5, says results of public-opinion inquiries about the elections may not be made public in any form from 24 hours before election day until the end of election day is declared in the country. This site prints no such figure on any day, including outside that span, and it prints no forecast of the November vote. A November count will be added only from the Commission, after the close. A correction of a date, an hour, or a name should be checked against the Commission and the Assembly, which are the offices named on this page.

Sources for this preview

• National Assembly, 31 July 2026
• Central Election Commission, 25 October 2026 results
• Election Code, consolidated text
• Election Code, article 205