Bulgaria Socialists Pick Sofia Mayor Nominee with Essay Questions

The Bulgarian Socialists are trying out new approach for selecting a Sofia Mayor candidate; pictured here - BSP leader and former PM Sergey Stanishev. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Socialist Party is going to determine its candidate for the Sofia Mayor elections scheduled for November 2009 through a new procedure.

13 people have been nominated by the party's Sofia organization to be the BSP's candidate to become the head of the Bulgarian capital.

Those include city councilors Georgi Kadiev and Zhelyu Boychev, Member of the European Parliament Iliana Iotova, Members of Parliament Petar Korumbashev, Yanaki Stoilov (leader of the so called left wing at the BSP), and Meglena Plugchieva (former Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funding).

By September 5, the nominees are supposed to submit their CVs and a cover letter on the following topic: "Why do I want to become Mayor of the Sofia Municipality, what are its problems, and how do I plan to solve them?"

On September 7, the Sofia organization of the BSP is going to determine, based on the CVs and the cover letters, who will be the candidates to run in its internal elections. The voting itself will take place before October 5, and by October 12, the City Council of the BSP is going to announce officially the name of the party candidate for Sofia.

The Bulgarian capital Sofia has to hold partial local elections because the leader of the GERB party, Boyko Borisov, who has been the Mayor since 2005 (reelected in 2007), became the Prime Minister of Bulgaria in July 2009.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party has traditionally failed to perform well in Sofia where the majority of residents vote rightist.

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