Bulgaria 2026 Presidential Election
Expected in November at the end of the incumbent's five-year term, with a run-off the following Sunday if no candidate takes an absolute majority on a turnout of more than half the electorate.
Bulgaria votes for a president in an information environment that EU institutions have repeatedly identified as among the most exposed in the union to Russian-aligned messaging. The presidency is largely ceremonial, which makes the campaign a cheaper target than a parliamentary contest — and therefore a useful place to observe technique rather than consequence.
What to watch
Each point is classified under the same five categories as a documented finding, so an upcoming election reads with the same frame as a past one.
- Informationsoperationen
Whether Bulgarian-language outlets amplify narratives traceable to documented networks, and whether platforms label or act on them during the campaign.
See the source - Verstöße gegen das Verfahren
Whether the machine-and-paper voting arrangement, changed repeatedly across recent Bulgarian elections, is settled well before polling day rather than altered close to it.
- Ausländische Einflussnahme
Whether foreign-funded campaigning is identified by Bulgarian authorities, and whether findings are published in time to be assessed before the vote.
Operations documented against this country
Actors documented in this region
Background reading
Sources cited above
Where the date comes from
- Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria — National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria
- Rumen Radev and Iliana Iotova take office for a second term — President of the Republic of Bulgaria
Scheduled dates come from national election authorities and are linked above. Dates can move; where one is not yet fixed by decree it is marked as expected rather than confirmed. Listing an election here is not a prediction that anything improper will occur — it is a statement about what would be worth checking if it did.