Bulgarians are heading to the polls on Sunday to elect the country's new President and vote in a referendum on the political system.

A tight race is expected between the two frontrunners, Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, nominated by main ruling party GERB, and former Air Force Commander Maj Gen Rumen Radev, endorsed by the main opposition force, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). Tsacheva, pointed by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in October, is expected to win the first round by a narrow margin.

Nationalist-backed Krasimir Karakachanov is placed third by some of the polls. The DPS, Bulgaria's third-largest party that is dominated by ethnic Turks (the latter make up for than a tenth of the population) has no official candidate, but has endorsed Plamen Oresharski, a controversial ex-Prime Minister previously seen as an outsider. Support for him has been on the rise in a recent poll.

Other prominent candidates include former Energy Minister Traycho Traykov, nominated by right-wing Reformist Bloc coalition (the junior ally in Borisov's government) and ex-Deputy PM and Labour Minister Ivaylo Kalfin, whose ABV party withdrew from the cabinet earlier this year. 

The runoff, on November 13, is expected to be a close race, with some surveys predicting a win for Radev. 

Voters have to choose their favourite among 21 candidates and in line with eleventh-hour changes to the Electoral Code, compusory voting and a "protest" option in the ballots. Those who have no preference for a candidate can tick "I Do Not Support Anyone". Not voting in two consecutive elections will result in deregistration from the electoral roll, under the new laws. 

Incumbent Rosen Plevneliev is not running for a second term, but has not ruled out doring so later. He was elected in 2011 as GERB's nominee, but over the years began distancing himself from the executive and from Borisov. 

Some 6.83 million Bulgarians are eligible to vote, with nearly 12 500 polling stations opened by election authorities.

Voting in Bulgaria begins at 07:00 local time (EET) and continues until 20:00, but may be extended by 21:00 if there are still people waiting to cast ballots. 

Queues are expected in front of polling stations abroad, mainly in the UK and Turkey. The run-up to the election was marked by a last-minute change in the rules of expat voting. There is a cap on the number of polling stations outside the EU, their number not exceeding 35 - a move election authorities warn may cause delays in Turkey and the United States where large Bulgarian communities live. 

Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic, but the head of state's office is more than ceremonial, with the President having a range of powers such as representing Bulgaria in international relations, vetoing legislation, and creating caretaker cabinets.

In the referendum, three questions are being asked: 

1. Do you support the election of national representatives [lawmakers] through a first-past-the-post system in two rounds?

2. Do you support the introduction of compulsory voting in elections and referenda?

3. Do you support a state subsidy allocated to fund political parties to BGN 1 per every valid vote received in the last parliamentary elections?

Opponents of the referendum, who question the authority of political talk show host Slavi Trifonov (the latter having initiated the poll) call for a mass boycott to decrease turnout. Unlike the election, it is not compulsory to vote in the referendum. 

The presidential election and the referendum go hand in hand with a local election in Sofia's neighborhood of Mladost, where the mayor stepped down amid protests earlier this year.

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