Theme: Bulgaria

Iliana Yotova and her running mate, Kiril Valchev, received 57.58 percent of the vote and defeated former caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov in the second round of Bulgaria’s presidential election, according to official results. Deutsche Welle (DW) reported 57.6 percent to 39.5 percent.

Bulgaria has elected Iliana Iotova as its first female president, official results showed on Monday, in a Reuters text republished by Internazionale. Iotova, 61, won 57.6% of the votes cast in Sunday’s runoff contest, while her rival, former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov, 50, won 39.5%. The presidential vote comes against the backdrop of a series of drone attacks in the past month on merchant ships off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, which have killed at least 24 seafarers. Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the strikes’ outcome “benefits the Russian Federation.”

Acting President Iliana Iotova won Bulgaria’s presidential runoff with 57.6% of the vote and will become the country’s first elected female head of state, according to the Associated Press (AP), in an article published by the Los Angeles Times, and pledged to bridge political divisions. The official results released on Monday were a political boost for Prime Minister Rumen Radev, who had backed her for the largely ceremonial role.

Iliana Iotova won Bulgaria's presidential runoff with 1,093,852 votes, 57.56% of the total, against 750,251 votes, 39.48%, for the ticket of Andrey Gurov and Georgi Kandev, with 99.68% of ballots counted. Iotova is the country's seventh president and the first woman elected to the post. Turnout stood at about 27%.

Acting President Iliana Yotova is the apparent winner of Bulgaria’s presidential runoff, initial results of Sunday’s vote count showed, and former interim Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov conceded defeat. Parallel counts by five polling agencies put Yotova between 56.6% and 58.2% of the vote, against 38.6% to 40.6% for Gyurov.

Bulgaria’s acting president Iliana Iotova won Sunday’s presidential runoff, exit polls showed, with 50.7 percent to 52.5 percent of the vote against 43.4 percent to 44 percent for Andrey Gyurov, according to three different polls, the SCMP reported. Iotova favors dialogue with Moscow and opposes military aid to Ukraine.

Bulgaria votes this Sunday in the presidential runoff, after the tight race between the two leading candidates failed to produce an outright winner in the first round, Reuters reported. The election pits Iliana Iotova against Andrey Gyurov. The Iotova-Valchev ticket, backed by the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, among others, came out on top in the first round on October 25, 2026, with 34.76 percent of the votes, Xinhua reported. Exit polls will be published after voting ends at 8 p.m. local time, with a result likely on Monday as ballots are counted, according to Reuters.

Bulgarians voted on Sunday in a presidential runoff marked by regional security threats and economic worries at home, according to the Associated Press, in a story published by ABC News. Yotova beat Gyurov by 2.8 percentage points in the first round on October 25, which drew record-low turnout.

The container ship Contship Jet, Greek-owned and operated by Israel's ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, was hit by at least three unmanned drone vessels and sank in the Black Sea, according to Globes. The ship had sailed from Haifa, and the 421 containers it carried went down with it. The crew was rescued unharmed. All 18 crew members, 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians, were taken to the Bulgarian port of Varna, according to Israel Hayom. ZIM said the ship was small, chartered and not owned by the company, that the crew was safely evacuated and that the initial estimate of financial damage is minimal, the company told Globes.

Bulgaria’s presidential election is heading to a run-off after record low turnout, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Bulgarians vote this Sunday, October 25, in a presidential election held amid the spread of Russia's war on Ukraine to the waters off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, according to Al Jazeera. Polls place acting President Iliana Iotova, 61, and ex-caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov, 50, as leaders in a race of 27 candidates, according to The Hindu. The vote has taken on added significance after a series of drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast that likely killed some two-dozen international seafarers, according to The Hindu.

NATO will send maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems and drones to the Black Sea, after a series of deadly drone attacks on shipping in the region apparently linked to Russia's war in Ukraine, according to Reuters, in a text republished by US News. A US P-8 Poseidon has begun patrolling the Black Sea to conduct reconnaissance missions and detect any activity that could pose a risk, Radev said, according to Arab News. Last week, seven sailors were reported missing after drones struck two chemical tankers near Romania's Black Sea coast, setting them ablaze.

A bomb threat against an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna forced the plane to divert to Bulgaria on Sunday, according to Bulgarian authorities and the airline. The airline told AFP that 51 passengers and six crew were aboard and that a security search of the Airbus A320 was launched after it safely landed in Sofia about a half hour after the threat.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev summoned the Russian ambassador after two merchant ships were struck by drones off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast and one of them sank, according to the BBC. Eleven sailors from the sunken ship were missing at sea on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The other ship, the Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3, sailing under the Maltese flag, was hit 18 nautical miles from the town of Byala, and all 15 crew were rescued, according to the BBC.

The Maltese-flagged merchant vessel Chelsea 3 was attacked by three unidentified drones roughly 14 nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast, in the exclusive economic zone, with two sailors injured, according to TASS, which cites the maritime.bg site. The crew sent a distress signal on Monday night and was evacuated to Varna, with the vessel kept afloat, according to TASS, which cites the maritime.bg site.

Syria has called for an “independent and transparent” investigation into the sinking of the Alfa Watan cargo ship, demanding answers over the fate of its 10 crew members — nine Syrians and an Egyptian —, who remain unaccounted for, Al Jazeera reported. The Togolese-flagged vessel went down in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone early on Tuesday.

Two commercial vessels were struck by drones on Tuesday, October 6, in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea — the first attack on shipping in the exclusive economic zone of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member, according to CBC News. The Togo-flagged Alfa Watan suffered critical structural damage and sank, and the crew’s fate remains unknown. The second ship, registered in Palau, caught fire and its Turkish and Indian crew members were rescued, according to RFI. Bulgaria’s prime minister said, according to CBC News, that the situation is seriously disrupting shipping in the Black Sea, driving up insurance costs even further and making shipping extremely difficult.

A merchant ship has sunk and its crew is missing after a drone attack in the Black Sea, Bulgarian officials say. A second vessel carrying grain was hit within Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. Its crew of 18 were rescued. The attacks took place at about 03:00 (23:00 GMT), some 70 miles (112 km) off the coastal town of Byala in eastern Bulgaria, and involved air and sea drones, Radev said. The sunken ship was flying the flag of Togo.