The presidential ticket of Yotova and Valchev has the backing of 47.8% of people who say they will vote in the October 25 election, a poll by the Trend research agency for the newspaper 24 Chasa shows. The ticket of Gyurov and Kandev is in second place with 24.6%, and pollsters say a runoff between the two is all but certain.
Third place goes to Kostadinov and Volgin of Vazrazhdane with 9.7%. They are followed by Vasilev and Manov of MECh with 4.6%, Mihaylov and Mateeva of Velichie with 2.4%, and Hristanov and Cherkezova with 1.9%.
The poll was carried out from September 26 to October 2 among 1,003 people aged 18 and over, with face-to-face interviews using tablets. The margin of error is up to 3.1%. Trend's pollsters say voter attitudes have not changed much over the past month.
The poll shows 66% of those asked see the presidential election as important, with 29% calling it very important and 37% saying it is fairly important. 38% of respondents say they are sure they will vote on October 25 — just over 2 million people — while 20% have not yet decided whether to go to the polls.
Trend also ran a separate poll on preferences for the coming parliamentary election. It puts Progressive Bulgaria in the lead with 40.8%, followed by GERB with 14.2%, PP with 7.6% and DB with 6.5%. The MRF scores 6.2%, Vazrazhdane gets 5.7%, while MECh and the BSP stay close to the threshold for entering parliament, at 3.8% and 3.6% respectively. Velichie gets 2.7%, and Siyanie gets 2.2%.