Bulgarian voters go to the polls in presidential election

(Vatican Radio) Voters in Bulgaria were choosing on Sunday a new president who will likely have to face an expected rise in migrants
fleeing war and poverty from neighboring Turkey and growing tensions between Russia and the West. For the first time, voting was compulsory for
the country's 6.8 million eligible voters, but none of the 21 candidates was expected to win the required 50 percent of the vote to win, prompting
a presidential runoff later on November 13.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, a former bodyguard with a black belt in karate, appeared upbeat as he cast his
ballot: Polls showed his center right GERB party's presidential candidate Tsetska Tsacheva, who is 58, was seen the front runner in Sunday's
electron.

Yet to become the first female president of this country of 7.2 million people, Tsacheva must defeat the 53-year-old opposition Socialist
contender Rumen Radev, a former fighter pilot and Bulgarian air force chief.

If Tsacheva is elected, she is widely expected to continue the pro-Europe foreign policy of outgoing president Rosen Plevneliev.
Her main opponent is seen as more sympathetic to Russia.

RUSSIAN TIES

Radev has repeatedly said he would comply with Bulgaria's European obligations but has called for better relations with Moscow and called for
lifting sanctions against Russia, arguing that "being pro-European does not mean being anti-Russian."

At the same time, the new president is expected to face a new influx of especially Syrian refugees from neighboring Turkey, putting additional
pressure in what is the European Union's poorest member state. 

The political battle about the political direction and future of this Balkan nation, once a close ally of the Soviet Union,
comes amid public outrage over corruption and Western style reforms.

That's why the front runners still face a challenge from nationalist backed candidate Krasimir Karakachanov. "We are not going to a presidential campaign," he told supporters last week. "We are leaving for a battle for the liberation of Bulgaria! The liberation from the nihilism, from the corrupted and hatred political class, from the corruption and buying votes, foreign interference and poverty."