Bulgaria's election commission declares Iliana Yotova elected president after she won the runoff with 57.566% of the vote

Bulgaria's acting president, Iliana Yotova, has been formally declared the winner of Sunday's presidential runoff. This report draws on BNT, Bulgaria's public broadcaster; BNR, Bulgarian National Radio; bTV (in copy published by Standart); Euronews; the Bulgarian daily 24 Chasa; RTÉ; and the news sites dnes.bg and vesti.bg. Figures and quotations from Bulgarian have been translated by Scopa's Realm. ## Update: Yotova declared elected On Tuesday 3 November the Central Election Commission (CIK) announced the final result of the two-round vote and, in decision No. 441, declared Yotova and her running mate, Kiril Valchev, elected president and vice-president, BNT reports; BNR and bTV also report the decision. Yotova and Valchev won 1,093,852 votes (57.566%) and Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev 750,251 (39.483%), while 56,080 voters (2.951%) chose not to support anyone. Turnout was 1,902,933 voters, or 28.67%, according to BNT. The decision will be published in the State Gazette, BNT reports. ## Yotova declares victory; Gyurov concedes Yotova declared victory alongside Prime Minister Rumen Radev, saying her message had been about "incomes, peace and the challenges that lie ahead", RTÉ reports. Gyurov said he accepted "the results as they are" and added: "We have laid a solid foundation upon which we can build." Radev said: "Today, the Bulgarian people have chosen the future over the past." Yotova is set to become the country's first elected woman president, RTÉ reports. ## The candidates and the post Yotova, 62, took over the presidency in January, when Radev stepped down to run for parliament, Euronews reports. She campaigned for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine; Gyurov, a former interim prime minister backed by pro-Western opposition parties, signalled closer alignment with Western partners, according to Euronews. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but the president leads the armed forces, can veto legislation and signs international treaties, Euronews reports.