Businessman Plamen Yurukov was elected leader of Bulgaria's Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) on Sunday to replace former president Petar Stoyanov.

Yurukov, 44, defeated Sofia municipal councillor Stefan Ivanov in a run-off by 422 votes against 267 at the party's convention in Sofia.

Yurukov, a philosophy graduate of the Kliment Ohridski university in Sofia, is best known for his coffee business, merchandised under the Spetema brand. Despite not holding political office before, he has long been associated with UDF.

MP Yordan Bakalov lost out in the first round of voting, but appears to have reached an agreement with Yurukov who got the votes of his supporters, while Ivanov got only nine more votes in the run-off.

In his speech before the vote, Yurukov emphasised the importance of freedom and spoke against excessive government regulation.

Outgoing party chairman Stoyanov, who stepped down after UDF failed to get a single MEP seat in the European Parliament elections in May, spoke in his final address of his that his resignation would help centre-right parties unite.

"It only makes sense to be party leader if you bring something to the table," he said, adding that he did not plan to leave UDF and set up his own party.

UDF has been in a steady decline since 2001, when the party lost the general elections following four years of needed, but painful reforms.

It never recovered from the shock, splitting into three smaller parties since then, progressively losing ground in public opinion polls, which show it could fail to make it into the next parliament altogether.

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