Rumen Radev

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has said he will step down after the candidate his party backed in the presidential elections, speaker of parliament Tsetska Tsacheva, got only 35 per cent in Sunday's run-off vote.

According to local media, Borissov also called for an early parliamentary election after the centre-right Tsacheva's defeat.

Rumen Radev, backed by the socialist opposition is poised to become Bulgaria's President, exit poll results show.

Two pollsters are indicating Radev is leading by a wide margin in the runoff vote held on Sunday.

Sunday's result, if confirmed, would constitute the first ever election loss of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov since the party was set up in the mid-2000s.

Ahead of Sunday's presidential run-off in Bulgaria, polling agencies have given a distinct lead to Rumen Radev, the left-wing victor of the first round of the election on October 6.

He took 25.45 per cent of the votes compared to 21.97 per cent for Tsetska Tsacheva, candidate of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's centre-right GERB party.

Bulgarians are heading to the polls on Sunday to elect the country's new President in a runoff vote.

A tight race is expected between the two remaining contenders, Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, nominated by main ruling party GERB, and former Air Force Commander Maj Gen Rumen Radev, endorsed by the main opposition force, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

Nearly ten years after Bulgaria joined the EU, many of its citizens think that their problems are not of much interest to Brussels. There are many disappointed Bulgarians who now look to Russia as a more relevant neighbor, reported Reuters in an article entitled Bulgarian Vote Shows Russia Winning Hearts on EU's Eastern Flank.

The independent candidate supported by BSP for President Rumen Radev receives the vote of 49.6% of the voters on the eve of the second round of elections on Sunday.

A total of 39.1% of voters will vote for GERB's candidate Tsetska Tsacheva, showed data of Alpha Research. 11.3% of the participants of the survey stated that they will not vote.

Normal State's leader Georgi Kadiev has said he and his party stand behind Rumen Radev, the candidate backed by the Bulgarian Socialist party (BSP), in the presidential election on Sunday.

The runoff pits Radev against Tsetska Tsacheva, the candidate of Bulgaria's main ruling party.

The two remaining presidential contenders in Bulgaria will appear on a televised debate on Thursday evening, three days out of the presidential runoff.

The biggest Bulgarian party's presidential candidate Tsetska Tsacheva must show full commitment to a 10-point reform agenda to receive support from Traycho Traykov, the Reformist Bloc (RB)'s dropped candidate, the latter has said.

Traykov was the joint candidate of junior coalition partner RB but did not make it to the runoff.

Tsetska Tsacheva and Rumen Radev, the two presidential candidates who made it to the runoff due this weekend, will clash in a televised debate on Sunday.

The two will face each other on the Bulgarian National Television on Thursday, November 10, at 20:30.