WORLD : Reformist Named Bulgaria Chief
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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Parliament elected reformist Communist Petar Mladenov as president of a new, non-socialist republic today and cleared the way for free multi-party elections in June.
Mladenov, who ousted disgraced hard-line state and Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov last November, said he will resign from the party’s decision-making Supreme Council to steer the Balkan state toward democracy.
“The Bulgarian Communist Party wants guarantees for a peaceful transition to democracy and also wants a man . . . who can provide those guarantees,” Mladenov told reporters before the Communist-dominated National Assembly unanimously elected him.
His swearing-in was the chamber’s last act before it dissolved for elections June 10 and 17 that will usher in Bulgaria’s first freely elected Parliament in 45 years.
The outgoing chamber also gave final approval to two laws on the formation of political parties and electoral procedures and amended the existing constitution to make Bulgaria a “democratic” rather than a “socialist” state.
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