Bulgaria's largest English-language media Novinite.com invite you, our readers from around the world, to VOTE HERE for Bulgaria's "Personalities in the News" for 2013.

This year the nominees are grouped in six different categories - Politics; Business; Culture; Sports; Diplomacy and Charity, which features for the very first time in our poll.

True, at the end of an uncanny political year of both upheaval and stagnation for Bulgaria we were considering doing away with the politics section. But eventually decided to hear what you, our readers in and outside Bulgaria, think.

Among politicians we nominated Irina Bokova, the first female Secretary General of UNESCO, who was re-elected for a new 5-year term. Boyko Borisov, Bulgaria's former prime minister, also made it to our list for resigning in time to prevent escalation of tensions and managing to win the elections. We also picked Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski to hear your thoughts on his resistance to the intense and massive anti-government protests, and his determination to pull the country out of the deep economic and social crisis.

This year for the first time Novinite.com introduces a category for people who made a difference with their charity activities. We nominated the 99-year-old Elder Dobri, who has been raising money for decades for the restoration and maintenance of churches throughout Bulgaria and is the biggest donor of the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia. The other two nominees are Ivanka Shalapatova, Executive Director of the 'For Our Children Foundation', and businessman Vasil Vasilev.

In the business section the nominees are Ekkehard Neureither, Country Manager for ABB in Bulgaria, a company with significant investments in new production units in the country, Ivaylo Penchev, founder and CEO of Walltopia, a world leader in the manufacture of climbing walls, as well as Orlin Popov, owner and general manager of Happy Bar & Grill and Happy Sushi.

Renowned violonist Vesko Eschkenazy, Bulgaria's bestselling author Georgi Gospodinov and actor Vladimir Penev are this year's nominations in the Culture section.

We did not have even a moment of hesitation about the nominees in the Sports section - Bulgaria's top tennis player Grigor Dimitrov, Kubrat Pulev and Stiliyan Petrov more than deserve to see their names there.

The nominees for the prestigious 'Ambassador in the News' award are Jonathan Allen, British Ambassador to Bulgaria, Matthias Hoepfner, Germany's Ambassador and Takashi Koizumi, Japan's Ambassador here - each of whom made their unique contribution over the past year.

The voting will continue until the middle of February 2014, during which time we will take special care to present and promote equally all the nominees  through interviews and articles.

The winners will be announced and awarded at a ceremony at the beginning of March, which has already turned into a traditional and cherished event among expats, diplomats and businessmen in Bulgaria and around the world.

Pick Bulgaria's most deserving personalities in politics, business, culture; sports; charity and from among ambassadors to Sofia! VOTE HERE!

Editorial Team:

Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) & Novinite.bg;
The Sofia Morning News;
The Sofia Weekly

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