Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Voter turnout at the local election runoff in Bulgaria on November 5

The second round of local election in Bulgaria is taking place in normal conditions

| updated on 11/5/23 7:23 PM
Photo: Archive

One hour before the end of the second round of local elections in Bulgaria, turnout in Sofia was 33.4%. In Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, 22.7 per cent of voters went to the polls, 30.5 per cent in Varna and 40.2 per cent in Blagoevgrad, according to exit poll data from Gallup International Balkan, BNR's partner in covering the local elections.
Turnout at 5 p.m. was 25.9 per cent in Sofia, 17.4 per cent in Plovdiv and 24 per cent in Varna. In Blagoevgrad, 33.9% of those eligible to vote had cast their ballots by that hour. These are the results of the exit poll conducted by Gallup International Balkan. By comparison, in the second round of the October 2019 local elections, 33.33% of voters had cast their ballots by 5.30 p.m.
47 out of a total of 5,900 machines across the country experienced various technical problems. Only paper ballots were used in these polling stations.

As of 3 p.m., voter turnout in the second round of the local elections was 19.5% in Sofia, 13.5 % in Plovdiv, 18.8 % in Varna and in Blagoevgrad 27.1 percent, according to the exit poll in front of the polling stations of Gallup International Balkan, which is a partner of the BNR in covering the local elections.

As of 1 p.m., voter turnout in the second round of local elections in Sofia was 12.4%, in Plovdiv - 9 %, Blagoevgrad - 19.1%, in Varna - 12.8%, according to an exit poll conducted by the Gallup International Balkan agency.

Voter turnout in the second round of the local elections in Bulgaria as of 11 a.m. was 5.2% in Sofia, 3.9% in Plovdiv, 5.8% in Varna, 10.5 in Blagoevgrad, according to information from the preliminary survey by the Gallup International Balkan agency. 

Election day in Bulgaria began peacefully, the Interior Ministry announced. The units in "Bulgarian identity documents" work from 08.30 to 19.00 and will issue certificates for lost or damaged identity cards and expired documents.

5,898 are the voting machines available in polling stations in the country with more than 300 voters. Several machines have malfunctioned, the Central Election Commission announced.
Gallup International Balkan is a partner of BNR in covering the local elections. The director of the agency Parvan Simeonov reminded that the conducted exit poll and parallel counting in front of the polling stations are sample studies of a predictive nature and should not be taken as the final result! 
The purpose of the exit poll and the parallel counting of the votes, in addition to being informative, is also a guarantee for the fairness of the elections, explained Simeonov. He urged voters to respond to their pollsters. "Gallup" will monitor the vote in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Blagoevgrad and will count in parallel in Vidin and Shumen. 

As of 9 a.m., voter turnout in Sofia was 1.3%, in Plovdiv 1.1%, in Blagoevgrad 4.3%, in Varna 1.5%, Silistra and Shumen, the Ministry of the Interior announced.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Red heat alert issued for 12 Bulgarian districts, orange code alert in effect for the rest of the country

On Saturday, it will be sunny and even hotter. In the afternoon, clouds will form over the mountainous regions of Western Bulgaria, and by the evening, also in the northwestern areas. Isolated thunderstorms and rain showers are expected in some..

published on 7/25/25 6:25 PM

President: Pogrom on the Constitution will continue to distort political life

The flaws in the Constitution, admitted by the government of the GERB-SDS and PP-DB coalition with the support of the DPS in 2023, were not removed by the Constitutional Court. That is how President Rumen Radev commented on the fact that yesterday the..

published on 7/25/25 5:46 PM

Bulgaria is the most affected country by fires in the EU for 2024-2025

The most affected country by fires for 2024-2025 in the European Union is Bulgaria, the Ministry of Environment and Water has reported. Over the past two years, this country has reported an alarming trend: 38,000 sq. m. have been affected by fires and..

published on 7/25/25 5:13 PM