The shortlist of 24 shortlisted songs to rival for participation in Eurovision 2006 has seen a reshuffle after one of the bidders quit in apparent violation of the rules.

Vanya Kostova's Merak (Desire), performed with her son Boyan Mihaylov, appeared not to be eligible for the Europe-wide contest, as it took part in a local music festival in September last year.

The fifteen-member panel gathered Tuesday to decide which song on the reserve list is to fill in the vacancy. Eventually an arbitrary decision, required because of equal points, preferred Mariana Pashalieva to last year's controversy-flagging TV show anchor Slavi Trifonov and Sofi Marinova.

Mariana Pashalieva will rival with her song Impossible Silence, performed together with Marin Yonchev, the teen winner in the first edition of Star Academy in Bulgaria.

Athens, which hosts Eurovision 2006 for its winner last year Helena Paparizou, will see actually two stars from Bulgaria's Star Academy show, as the first selection picked also Ivaylo Kolev and his English-text Every Dream at Night.

In the second round of the contest that will take place February 25, all 24 songs will be selected by the panel in a live TV and Radio emission of a concert in the National Palace of Culture. Based on the quality showed in the live performance, the jury will bring down the number of songs to 12.

In the final round all 12 songs will be performed at a life concert on March 11 and the audience will have the last say.

Last year, the Bulgarian participation in the spectacle was marred by a vote-forging scandal.

The country's representative band, Kaffe, were accused by other Bulgarian contestants of generating sms votes through specially bought SIM cards. The scandal broke during the live gala concert in Sofia when the winners were announced.

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