November 7 (SeeNews) - The candidate of main opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leads in the first round of the country's presidential elections but falls short of outright majority, according to 66.55% of the voting protocols counted, the central election commission said on Monday.
Former Air Force commander Rumen Radev won 25.67% of the vote, while centre-right governing party GERB's candidate, Parliament speaker Tsetska Tsacheva came in second with 22.02% in Sunday's elections, commission spokeswoman Kamelia Neykova said, speaking on public TV broadcaster BNT.
The partial results suggest a run-off between Radev and Tsacheva will be held on November 13.
Support for Krassimir Karakachanov, candidate of nationalist Patriotic Front coalition and Ataka party, stood at 15.10%.
In the national referendum for changes to Bulgaria's electoral system that was held simultaneously with the first round of the presidential elections, 2.3 million people voted, according to 65% of the ballots counted. The results did not include the ballots cast by Bulgarian voters living abroad.
For the referendum to be valid at least 3.5 million should have voted.