Petar Stoyanov

Infobox_President | name = Petar Stefanov Stoyanov
Петър Стефанов Стоянов
nationality = Bulgarian


order = 3rd President of the Republic of Bulgaria
term_start = 22 January 1997
term_end = 22 January 2002
vicepresident = Todor Kavaldzhiev
primeminister =
predecessor = Zhelyu Zhelev
successor = Georgi Parvanov
birth_date = Birth date and age|1952|5|25|df=y
birth_place = Plovdiv
death_date =
death_place =
spouse = Antonina Stoyanova
party = UDF

Petar Stefanov Stoyanov ( _bg. Петър Стефанов Стоянов) (born May 25, 1952) was President of Bulgaria from 1997 until 2002. He won the 1996 presidential election as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces. He received more votes than the socialist candidate Ivan Marazov and the Bulgarian Business Block candidate, George Ganchev, in the first round. He then defeated Marazov in a runoff. In the first round of the 2001 presidential election he finished in second place, as Georgi Parvanov received 36.3%, Stoyanov received 34.9% and the third major candidate, Bogomil Bonev received 19.2%. Stoyanov lost the subsequent runoff with Purvanov 53.3%-46.7%. After leaving office he refrained from media attention for some time.

Later, however, Stoyanov returned to active politics. In 2005 he was elected member of the 40th National Assembly. After UDF's inadequate result at the elections (8.4 % of the popular vote and 20 out of 240 seats) he blamed party's leader Nadezhda Mihailova and criticized her policy. On October 1, 2005 the UDF National Conference elected him Chairman.

In Bulgaria's first ever European elections of May 20, 2007, Stoyanov - who led the list - failed to get elected since UDF fell 1% short of the 5.66% electoral threshold. This resulted in his resignation as UDF leader.

CV

*1976 Law Degree from the "Saint Kliment Ohridski" University of Sofia.
*1978 - 1990 Practicing lawyer.
*1990 Spokesman of the Union of the Democratic Forces (UDF) in Plovdiv (Bulgaria's second largest city).
*1992 Deputy Minister of Justice in the first non-communist (UDF) government of Bulgaria since 1944.
*1993 Resigned from office after the dismissal of the UDF government.
*May 1993 President of the UDF Legal Council.
*1994 Elected Member of the 37th National Assembly (Bulgaria's Parliament). Deputy Chairman of the UDF Parliamentary Group. Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Youth, Sports, and Tourism.
*1995 Deputy Chairman of UDF responsible for domestic policy.
*1 June 1996 Having won the primaries with 66 % of the 870 000 votes cast Petar Stoyanov was nominated Presidential Candidate of the United Democratic Forces.
*3 November 1996 Elected President of the Republic of Bulgaria by winning 2 502 517 votes equal to 59,73 % of the votes cast.
*19 January 1997 Sworn in President of the Republic.
*22 January 1997 Stepped into office.
*September 2004 Appointed Special Envoy for Moldova of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office
*2005 Elected Member of the 40th National Assembly. Member of European Integration Committee. Member of State Administration Affairs Committee.
*1 October 2005 Elected chairman of the Union of Democratic Forces.
*22 May 2007 Resigns from the chairmanship of the Union of Democratic Forces.

Stoyanov speaks English and German. He is married with a daughter (born 1990) and a son (born 1979).

Petar Stoyanov is member of the Internet Society since 2000, and has been regular Internet user. He also campaigned online in 1996 during the presidential elections.