Bulgarian Presidential Election Turnout Reaches 45% Hour Before Stations Close

The voter turnout at the Bulgarian presidential election was at 44.83% an hour before the polling stations close, the Bulgarian Central Election Commission (CEC) said Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — More than 3 million Bulgarians have already voted for the president and the vice president, while more than 2.5 million voters have cast their ballots in the national referendum on the election legislation.

"The voter turnout at the election of the president and the vice president of the country is 44.83% at 19:00 [local time, or 17:00 GMT]," CEC said as quoted by BGNES news agency.

The Bulgarian central electoral commission registered 21 candidates for the posts of the president and the vice president. The main candidates for the post of the country’s leaders are Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva from the GERB ruling party and a former Bulgarian Air Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Rumen Radev, nominated by an initiative committee of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

According to the country's Constitution, the candidate for presidency should gain over 50 percent of votes, if over a half of the voters turn out to vote. In case none of the candidates gain the necessary amount of votes, the second round of elections will be held in seven days.