November 22 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's incumbent president Rumen Radev won 66.72% of the votes in Sunday's presidential run-off against 31.80% for university professor Anastas Gerdzhikov, amid record-low voter turnout, final official results showed on Monday.
As many as 1.48% of voters did not support any of the two candidates, according to data by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) based on 100% of the votes counted.
Voter turnout stood at 24.12% by 4 p.m. local time on Sunday, four hours before polling stations closed.
"We have been through an unprecedented political month of two types of elections which clearly showed our people's will for change, for breaking up with corruption, theft and lawlessness, for removing the mafia from power," Radev commented on Sunday evening, as reported by public broadcaster BNT.
In the election race Radev was 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 had the support of the centre-right coalition of GERB and Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) led by former prime minister Boyko Borissov.
On November 14 Bulgaria held the first round of the presidential elections simultaneously 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.