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Bulgarian lawmakers have elected socialist party MP Maya Manolova National Ombudsman, the chairman of her party has said.

Mihail Mikov has made his comments, quoted by daily 24 Chasa, as ballots are still being counted in the single secret voting procedure arranged under Bulgaria's legislation.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said he is "utterly disappointed" by a voting in Parliament in which MPs rejected two of the three questions to be put forward in a referendum on election rules.

The Bulgarian Parliament is to hold an election of the country's new ombudsman on Thursday.

There are two candidates for the position - the incumbent ombudsman Konstantin Penchev, who was nominated for a second term by the Reformist Bloc (RB) and Maya Manolova, who is a nomination of her colleagues from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

The referendum, which has been proposed by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, will feature only the question concerning the introduction of remote electronic voting.

This was decided by the Bulgarian Parliament on Tuesday with 131 MPs voting in favour, 41 voting against, while three abstained, daily Dnevnik reports.

Proposed changes to Bulgaria's constitution meant to push forward a reform of the judicial system have been backed by 75% of the members of parliament.

A total of 180 MPs from both governing and opposition political parties have signed a draft bill calling for amendments to the constitution that was submitted to parliament on Friday.

Political parties in Bulgaria's parliament have agreed to submit a joint project for changing the constitution to move forward with reform of the judiciary.

The two largest parties represented in the Bulgarian parliament - GERB and BSP failed to reach an agreement on the tabled constitutional amendments.

This became clear after a brief meeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of the main ruling party (GERB) Boyko Borisov and leader of the largest opposition party (BSP) Mihail Mikov on Wednesday.

Two protests calling for genuine judicial reform are taking place near the building of the Bulgarian Parliament on Wednesday.

Participants in one of the protests will drink coffee in support of the judicial reform and the constitutional amendments and against the alternative proposals of the second largest opposition party - DPS.

The talks on garnering parliamentary majority for the amendments to the Bulgarian constitution will continue on Wednesday.

This will happen at a meeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of the main ruling party (GERB) Boyko Borisov and leader of the largest opposition party (BSP) Mihail Mikov.

Dimitar Radev has been elected Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

Bulgaria's Parliament backed Radev out of a total of four candidates for the post.

Outgoing BNB Governor Ivan Iskrov was voted out of office by Parliament shortly before his successor was elected.