275 Bulgarian Mayor Hopefuls Exposed for Ties with Communist Secret Services

Bulgaria's Files Commission published Tuesday the list of 275 names of mayoral candidates participating in the October 23 elections, who have been agents or collaborators of the former Communist State Security (DS).

8144 individuals were subject to the probe because the remaining ones were born after 1973, meaning that they are too young to have been collaborators of the totalitarian services. The total number of candidates for mayoral office is 9888.

From the 275, 59 are from the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS; 43 are from the opposition, left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSB, plus 2 independents also endorsed by the Socialists; 35 are from the center-right ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party GERB, and 20 – from the opposition, conservative Order, Law and Justice party, RZS. Petko Arnaudov, who is running for the fourth term in office in the Black Sea municipality of Tsarevo as independent, but who was previously endorsed by BSP, is also on the list.

Other popular names include Vladimir Karolev - candidate for Mayor of Sofia from the party of former Tsar and Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, National Movement for Stability and Prosperity, NMSP, and Kolio Paramov - candidate for Mayor of Sofia nominated by United Social Democracy, and former economic advisor to Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

The so-called "Files Commission", which is in charge of investigating the past connection of public figures with the secret services of former communist regime before 1989, has vowed to come up with the results of the inspection before the mayoral race.

A week ago, Evtim Kostadinov, Chair of the special panel specified that the Commission would do everything possible to make the results of the checks available at least one week before election day so that people can make an informed choice.

Kostadinov added that the panel also intended to examine the past of candidates for municipal councilors, which, however, was an uphill battle because there were 46 000-plus runners and the lists compiled by the municipal electoral commissions were often incomplete.

The Files Commission Chair said that the results of all checks of municipal councilors would most likely not be completed before October 23

In end-September, the Files Commission revealed the names of presidential candidates with ties to DS- Ventsislav Yosifov, former director of First Private Bank, former secret agent and alleged crime boss Alexei Petrov, and journalist Stefan Solakov.