November 21 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's incumbent president Rumen Radev won over 63% of the votes in Sunday's run-off, nearly twice as much as his opponent, university professor Anastas Gerdzhikov, and will serve a second term in office, exit polls showed.
Radev was backed by 63.9% versus 33.1% for Gerdzhikov, exit polls by Alpha Research polling agency quoted by the public broadcaster BNT showed. As many as 3.0% of people who went to the polls did not support any of the two candidates, according to Alpha Research.
According to an exit poll by Sofia-based Gallup International Balkan quoted by BNT, Radev was backed by 65.7% of voters, while 31.5% voted for Gerdzhikov.
Radev is supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the recently formed anti-graft parties We Continue the Change and Rise Up.BG. For his part, Gerdzhikov has the support of the centre-right coalition of GERB and Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) led by former prime minister Boyko Borissov.
Voter turnout stood at a record-low 33.7%, according to Alpha Research polling agency.
On November 14 Bulgaria held the first round of the presidential elections simultanously with elections for parliament, the country's third general vote this year.
According to final official results, We Continue The Change won 25.67% of the votes in the general elections, while the GERB - UDF coalition ended up second with 22.74%. Five more parties - the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which traditionally draws support mainly among Bulgarian ethnic Turks and Muslims, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), populist formation There Is Such a People (TISP), anti-status quo, pro-reform Democratic Bulgaria coalition, and nationalist and populist Revival - crossed the 4% threshold for entry into parliament.