2001 Bulgarian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Bulgaria on 11 November 2001, with a second round on 18 November. The result was a victory for Georgi Parvanov of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, who won 54.0% of the vote in the second round, defeating incumbent president Petar Stoyanov. Voter turnout was 41.8% in the first round and 55.1% in the second. Parvanov took office in 2002, becoming the first former communist to hold the post since 1990.

2001 Bulgarian presidential election

11 November 2001 (first round) 18 November 2001 (second round)
Turnout	41.63% (first round) 21.51pp 54.92% (second round) 6.53pp
Nominee Georgi Parvanov Petar Stoyanov Party BSP ODS Running mate Angel Marin Neli Kutskova Popular vote 2,043,443 1,731,676 Percentage 54.13% 45.87%
Results by province Parvanov:      50–60%      60–70% Stoyanov:      50–60%      60–70%
President before election Petar Stoyanov ODS Elected President Georgi Parvanov BSP

Opinion polls

First round

Pollster	Date	Stoyanov	Bonev	Parvanov	Ganchev	Indzhova	Beron	Others
Alpha Rissourch	20.09.2001	34	19	18	3	3	0.5	22.5
Alpha Rissorch	21.10.2001	43.9	24.5	23.2	3.9	3.9	0.6	0

Results

Candidate		Running mate	Party	First round		Second round
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Georgi Parvanov	Angel Marin	Bulgarian Socialist Party	1,032,665	36.39	2,043,443	54.13
	Petar Stoyanov	Neli Kutskova	United Democratic Forces	991,680	34.95	1,731,676	45.87
	Bogomil Bonev	Atanas Zhelezchev	Independent	546,801	19.27
	Reneta Indzhova	Krastyu Ilov	Independent (Movement for Rights and Freedoms)	139,680	4.92
	George Ganchev	Veselin Bonchev	George Ganchev's Bloc	95,481	3.36
	Petar Beron	Stoyan Andreev	Independent	31,394	1.11
Total				2,837,701	100.00	3,775,119	100.00
Valid votes				2,837,701	99.56	3,775,119	99.76
Invalid/blank votes				12,590	0.44	8,914	0.24
Total votes				2,850,291	100.00	3,784,033	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				6,847,422	41.63	6,889,638	54.92
Source: President of Bulgaria Nohlen & Stöver