SOFIA — Bulgarians began voting on April 19, 2026, in the country's eighth parliamentary election in five years. The ballot could bring former president Rumen Radev, who is left-leaning and pro-Russian, to power as prime minister.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) and were scheduled to close at 1700 GMT.

Radev leads the newly formed centre-left grouping Progressive Bulgaria. Opinion polls conducted before election day suggested the party could gain 35 percent of votes.

Radev resigned from the mainly ceremonial presidency in January 2026 to launch his bid for prime minister. He has advocated for renewing ties with Russia and criticized sending military aid to Ukraine. He said he wants to rid the country of its "oligarchic governance model."

He backed anti-corruption protests in late 2025 that brought down the conservative-backed government. The December 2025 protests drew hundreds of thousands of mainly young people to the streets, with demonstrators calling for an independent judiciary to tackle widespread corruption. Those protests resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and his cabinet in December 2025.

Since 2021, Bulgaria's parliament has been fragmented, producing governments that did not survive more than a year before being brought down by street protests or parliamentary deals. The April 2026 vote marks the eighth time in five years that Bulgarians have gone to the polls in an effort to form a stable government.