Bulgaria votes in presidential runoff as Black Sea drone attacks shadow campaign

Bulgarians voted on Sunday in a presidential runoff between acting president Iliana Iotova and former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov, after a first round of 27 candidates last weekend left neither with the 50 percent needed to win outright.

Polling stations close at 8pm local time (1800 GMT), when exit polls are due. Counting is expected to give a result on Monday, according to Reuters.

Iotova, 61, led the first round but fell short of the threshold, in a vote Reuters reported set a record low turnout. A win would make her Bulgaria's first elected female president. She became acting president in January after Rumen Radev resigned to contest and win a parliamentary race on what many political analysts considered a Kremlin-friendly ticket.

Gyurov, 50, is backed by pro-Western reformist parties and has long supported Ukraine. During his time as premier he signed a security cooperation agreement with Kyiv. Several right-leaning figures have endorsed him, among them former prime minister Boiko Borisov. Radev, now prime minister, backs Iotova.

The runoff has been overshadowed by a month of drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, which DW said had shaped the contest. About two dozen seafarers are feared dead, and a Greek container ship sank on Wednesday after being hit by sea drones, Reuters reported. The government has sought allied assistance to bolster maritime security.

Both leading candidates have condemned the strikes. Radev said their outcome "benefits the Russian Federation". Both have called for a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine.

The presidency is a largely ceremonial role in Bulgaria, where the prime minister runs the government. The reports did not give turnout figures for Sunday's vote.