Bulgaria Nominates Kristalina Georgieva for UN Chief

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov announced on Wednesday that Sofia now supported the candidacy of Kristalina Georgieva for the post of UN Secretary-General

"We consider this will be a more successful nomination," Borissov said, referring to Bulgaria's first choice, Irina Bokova, the UNESCO director, who came in sixth place in the last secret ballot in the UN Security Council on Monday.

Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said the government had decided "give a chance to a candidate who has better chances of giving more strength to the Eastern European group in having its secretary general of the UN".

Following Georgieva's nomination, Bulgaria is in the paradoxical situation of having two candidates for the UN job.

It remains unclear whether Bokova will abandon the race. The day before Borissov publicly nominated Georgieva, she told the newspaper 24 Chasa that she saw no "serious reason to withdraw".

However, Borissov had given her an ultimatum to come in first or second place in the secret vote on September 26, if the government was to keep on supporting her in the race to replace Ban Ki-moon.

The latest vote, however, was the worst for the UNESCO chief. She came well behind the frontrunner -  the Portuguese head of the UN Refugee Agency, Antonio Gutteres - as well as behind Serbia's Vuk Jeremic, Slovakia's Miroslav Lajcak,  Slovenia's Danilo Turk and Argentina's Susana Malcorra.

Bulgaria's President, Rosen Plevneliev, backed the government's decision and called for the state to "show the world that we can be united and work in the same direction".

However, the opposition Socialist Party, the second largest party in parliament, on Wednesday said it would hold talks with other parliamentary groups on a...