The chief prosecutor of Bulgaria has refused to run Man of the Year, after his name appeared to garner the majority of nomination votes.
Boris Velchev has motivated his decision with inappropriateness of a magistrate's appearance in such contests. "Nobody asked me if I wanted to take part," he was quoted as saying by Bulgarian media.
The quest for Bulgaria's next Man of the Year was launched with an inquiry among 100 journalists asked to quote a personality with outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Bulgarians on the threshold of the EU.
A total of 69 names were suggested, topped also by Stanimir Stoilov - FC Levski's coach who made history in Bulgarian football by qualifying his team for the first time in the UEFA Champions League.
Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov, who won the manly title in 2002, has come up in top 3 in the inquiry.
Probably because of the approaching presidential elections, the first ten nominees feature predominantly faces well known from the news, such as Nedelcho Beronov, Ivan Kostov, Georgi Parvanov, Sergey Stanishev.
To the courtesy of the world of sports, chess grandmaster Vesselin Topalov and World Ice Skating Champion Maxim Staviski are also in the first lines.
A public voting will be launched on October 3 to offer online users pick up for themselves their Man of the Year favorites. The inquiry will close on October 26 and the official awarding ceremony will take place in end November, organisers from Club-M magazine said.