site.btaCentral Bank Governor to Be Elected by Open Vote

Central Bank Governor to Be Elected by Open Vote

Sofia, June 10 (BTA) - The governor of the Bulgarian National
Bank (BNB) will be elected by open vote in Parliament using the
chamber's computer system. If there is more than one candidate
for the post, the voting will be conducted in alphabetical order
 by the candidates' first names, the National Assembly decided
on Wednesday, approving the procedure for electing the central
bank chief.

News media and NGOs may approach the Budget and Finance
Committee in Parliament to present their opinions about the
candidates and raise questions with them. The committee will
hear the candidates at an open-door meeting which will be
broadcast live on the internet. Anonymous opinions and alerts
will be ignored, the National Assembly decided.

A candidate must win more than half of the votes of the MPs
present in order to be elected. If two or more candidates get
more than half of the votes, the one who earns the most votes
will be the ultimate winner. If no one wins enough votes, the
voting will be repeated with the top two contenders from the
first round. If no one is elected in this second round, a new
procedure will be conducted.

The parliamentary groups have seven days after the rules are
approved to submit their BNB governor nominations care of the
National Assembly speaker to the Budget and Finance Committee.
Nominations may also be submitted by independent MPs. The
proposals must be supported by written reasoning attesting to
the candidates' good professional reputation.

The nominations and the supporting documents will be posted on
the National Assembly website not later than seven days before
the hearing.

Emil Dimitrov (Patriotic Front) warned that the election can be
challenged if it is conducted before July 10. Budget and Finance
 Committee Chair Menda Stoyanova responded by saying that this
is the beginning of a procedure, not the election itself.

Dimitrov argued that nominations should be accepted not only
from parliamentary groups, but also from individual MPs or any
number of them. The proposal caused a controversy in the
chamber, and Stoyanova noted that it is unfeasible to entitle
240 individual MPs to propose candidates. Aliosman Imamov
(Movement for Rights and Freedoms) asked who will take the
political responsibility for the BNB governor's performance if
he or she is nominated by a separate individual.

Yet another proposal by the Patriotic Front was that each
candidate should present a plan listing the strategic goals they
 intend to pursue as central bank governor in the next six
years.

The Patriotic Front's proposals were defeated after a repeat
vote.