site.btaBulgarian Socialist Party to Elect New Chairman on Sunday, Nominees Total 29

Sofia, July 26 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will elect a new chairman at its 48th Congress at the National Palace of Culture on Sunday, the party's press office said Saturday.

A total of 29 persons have been nominated for the position to date, Milko Bagdasarov, Chair of the Nomination Committee, told BTA. Six people have already withdrawn their nominations: Borislav Goutsanov, Georgi Pirinski, Nikolai Malinov, Alexander Simov, Georgi Peterneychev, and Milko Bagdasarov. Among the nominees are outgoing leader Sergei Stanishev, outgoing Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev, National Assembly Chairman Mihail Mikov, BSP Deputy Chairman Yanaki Stoilov, National Assembly Deputy Chair Maya Manolova, MP Kornelia Ninova, and former MP Georgi Kadiev.

It is expected that the actual candidates to take part in the competition for the BSP leadership will be seven or eight. Each will have seven minutes to present his or her view on the party's future. The new BSP chairman will be elected through secret ballot.

The election of a new chairman was prompted by Stanishev's resignation after 13 years at the helm of BSP.  At a plenum on July 5 he asked that a congress be held on July 27 to elect a new chairman and adopt the platform for the October 5 early parliamentary elections. Stanishev's resignation came several days after he became member of the European Parliament.

The BSP Congress will start at 11 am with a speech by Stanishev, followed by a presentation of the draft political documents for the party's participation in the early general election.

According to observers here, the congress is being convened at a difficult time for BSP - after the resignation of a cabinet, whose governance with the socialist mandate took place against the backdrop of nearly one-year protests, and after a conflict with coalition partner Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The congress is also offset by strong criticism against BSP leader Stanishev and a nosedive of the socialists' public rating.