Bulgarians Urged to Boycott MP Hopefuls with Murky Past

Ten right-wing political parties supported a declaration calling on Bulgarians to boycott runners for parliament who have a secret service past.

The declaration, drawn up by seven non-governmental organizations, called "For a clean parliament 2009" and aims to raise public awareness of the results of a probe that a special panel, investigating Bulgaria's communist-era police files, will make to find out the names of agents and collaborators, who are running for members of parliament in the upcoming general and European Parliament elections.

The commission, in charge of the state security services files, said it will probe the past of some 4000 candidates for MPs and another 1000 MEP hopefuls.

The files of the former Committee for State Security are a thorny issue in Bulgaria, especially when it comes to the past of high-ranking officials.

Bulgaria's communist-era security service is believed to have remained potent after the fall of communism with the ex-operatives closely linked to the political and business establishment.

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