Bulgaria Socialists Vote to Keep Former PM Stanishev as Leader

The National Council of the Bulgaria Socialist Party (BSP) has voted to keep Bulgaria's former PM Sergey Stanishev as their party leader.

In a vote Saturday 122 of the members of the National Council of the BSP voted in favor of Stanishev, with 29 members voting against him.

The Council meeting was called up after the ruling BSP was defeated by the GERB party in the July 5 Parliamentary Elections, where the Socialists got almost 18% vs. 40% for the rightist GERB.

Stanishev had earlier called for a vote of confidence on his leadership. He stated that he wanted the vote to take into account his term as Bulgarian PM since 2005 and his performance as a party leader.

Stanishev added that he had "nothing to be ashamed of and that he had not failed as a leader", BGNES reported. He said that he certainly would not be resigning.

Some members of the National Council of Socialists, however, pointed out that the "confidence vote" of Sergey Stanishev was a useless procedure since, under the party statutes, only the national congress of the party could remove the leader.

The National Council of the BSP also discussed the potential convening of a party congress, 47th in turn, which could happen on October 17, 2009, at the earliest.