On 30 July
Alexander Lilov stated on behalf of the parliamentary group of the
Bulgarian Socialist Party that the decision to withdraw the candidacy of
Chavdar Kjuranov was "driven by the desire and the will of our party to get out of the outlined presidential crisis and today to elect president our republic." Lilov added that, "we will support one of the two candidates who puts politics of national consensus above party interests." The next day,
Peter Dertliev also withdrew his candidacy. On 31 July Elena Kircheva reported the withdrawal of the candidature of
Viktor Valkov on behalf of the parliamentary group of Agrarians, with Valkov saying "I do not feel confident enough at this time to proceed to the leadership of the country given that I see now in parliament a group of about 130 people on whose support I probably will not count." On 31 July
Stoyan Ganev nominated
Zhelyu Zhelev as a candidate for head of state on behalf of the
Union of Democratic Forces. On 1 August Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov said that the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party would support Zhelev, Viktor Valkov doing this on behalf of the BAP, BSP and UDF, and Julius Bahnev – on behalf of MRF. This provided the required majority and Zhelev was elected to the post. == Results ==