The Deputy Mayor of Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Varna, Associated Professor Dr. Hristo Bozov is taking over the City Hall until the snap local election.

Bozov was elected unanimously Wednesday by 35 members of the Municipal Council. Those from the quota of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, boycotted the sitting as they demand the dissolution of the Council.

Fourth-term Mayor, Kiril Yordanov, resigned on March 6, amidst huge protests.

Last week, the Municipal Electoral Commission accepted Yordanov's resignation.

Hristo Bozov is a former Head of the Navy Hospital in the city with a 25-year career as an army doctor. He is nonpartisan and was Deputy Mayor for Healthcare.

It emerged meanwhile that the decision of the Municipal Electoral Commission to accept Yordanov's resignation has been appealed in the Varna Administrative Court.

According to Nova TV, the claim has been filed by the Varna Protestant Evangelical Community, the Thracian Society "Capitan Petko Voivoda," the martial arts sports club, and a group Varna intellectuals.

According to the secretary of the Municipal Electoral Commission, Plamena Marinova, the claim cannot halt the procedure of selecting an interim Mayor. On these grounds, the Chairman of the Municipal Council, Nikolay Apostolov, opened the Wednesday sitting. He announced Bozov's name as an agreed consensus between political parties and protesting citizens.

Before taking the oath of office, Bozov declared he had no intentions to run at the May 12 general elections or at the local mayoral election.

The largest demonstrations against high utility bills, monopolies, poverty, economic stagnation, corruption, and the political model of ruling the country after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989 were held in Varna.

Varna people also continue to pile rocks, stones and flowers near the City Hall where Plamen Goranov, 36, set himself on fire on February 20th, the very same day when the Cabinet of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and his Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, resigned amidst the unprecedented since 1997 protests.

After Goranov committed the tragic act, Bozov was the person providing daily updates about the self-immolator's condition. Goranov died on March 3.

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