The son and partner of a local media mogul, who have been criticized for concentrating Bulgaria's media market in their hands and fawning to those in power, is planning another term in parliament.

Delyan Peevski, son of controversial media mogul and former lottery head Irena Krasteva, entered Bulgaria's parliament for the first time after his successful performance in the general elections in the summer of 2009, turning his back on another job offer - that of investigative magistrate.

Peevski was sworn in officially as MP on the ticket of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, just a day before the Supreme Judicial Council released him temporarily from his post at Sofia investigative service.

Peevski went back to his work as a magistrate after his term in parliament expired. He did it easily as under local legislation magistrates' posts are kept if they declare that they are temporarily leaving the system.

But he stayed in office for just twenty days and resigned on Thursday so that he can run for parliament again.

Although a founding member of the youth wing of ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg's NMSP party, he was appointed deputy minister on the quota of the ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms, reaching the peak of one of the most dashing careers in recent Bulgarian history.

Peevski was dismissed from the cabinet in May 2007 amidst a large-scale corruption scandal that led also to the suspension of economy minister Rumen Ovcharov.

He was sacked when the head of Bulgaria's state-owned tobacco monopoly Bulgartabac, Hristo Lachev, accused him of attempting to influence managerial appointments within the company.

Lachev had also accused Peevski of extorting funds from the company, amounting up to BGN 150,000 a month, for "private purposes".

Peevski was charged with malfeasance in office, but the trial against him was suspended.

The scandal, which spelled the end of Ovcharov's and Peevski's tenures with the previous cabinet, also took the head of Peevski's former superior, the head of the investigative service Anguel Alexandrov, who was accused of allegedly lobbying for deals with the State Reserve, which was headed by Peevski.

Former Socialist Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev however reinstated Peevski as deputy minister in November 2007.

During his first term in parliament Delyan Peevski rivaled the party's leader Ahmed Dogan, who is known to be among the lawmakers playing truant most often.

During his previous term as MP Dogan attended no more than ten parliamentary sessions over a period of four years.

The latest parliament, which held its first session at the beginning of July 2009 with the centre-right GERB party making up 116 MPs in the 240-seat unicameral national assembly, vowed to put an end to the vicious job-skipping practice, but to no avail.

Members of Bulgarian parliament have always had the habit of going after their private business instead of working in the plenary hall and obviously had no intention to shake it off.

Ahmed Dogan, whose party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) was part of the previous Socialist-led ruling coalition, has been a key player in the country's political life over the past decade.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!