Bulgarian MPs Surprisingly Scrap 'FBI' Head Vote

The two candidates to lead Bulgaria's National Security Agency - Nedyalko Nedyalkov (l) and Vladimir Pisanchev, photo by capital.bg

The Bulgarian Parliament surprisingly postponed Thursday the election of a new director of the State Agency for National Security, DANS.

The election was scheduled as the first item on the agenda and was supposed to start at 9 am.

While opening the Thursday sitting, the Speaker of the Parliament, Mihail Mikov, informed that Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski, had not yet submitted his nomination.

Under the recently voted controversial amendments to the DANS Act, its director is elected by the Parliament after the PM submits a proposal.

On Tuesday, the parliamentary committee for control of security agencies held a hearing of the two candidates for the post – the Head of the DANS Classified Information Directorate, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, and interim DANS Director, Vladimir Pisanchev.

On Wednesday, the committee informed both candidates had equal merits and decided to not recommend to Oresharski one of the two in order to allow him to make his own decision.

The DANS director vacancy opened after Bulgaria's Parliament revoked the appointment of notorious media mogul Delyan Peevski amid rising public discontent.

The above appointment triggered mass and persisting anti-government protests in the country, which are now in their second month.

Although the appointment was revoked, Bulgarians went on to demand that the Socialist-endorsed cabinet of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski resign collectively.

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