THE Bulgarian Socialist Party is preparing for its first fully-fledged congress since coming into office as the dominant partner of the tripartite coalition Cabinet, and faces key issues including rejuvenating the party and settling the Sofia leadership question.

The congress, the party's 46th, is to be held on December 3.

BSP leader, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, has been nominated for re-election as party leader. Other nominees for the post are Roumen Ovcharov, currently Energy and Economy Minister and also head of the BSP in Sofia - where he faces a leadership challenge - and Krassimir Premianov, a member of the BSP Supreme Council.

The party hopes to use the congress to consolidate its position, and to improve the connection between the party and its parliamentary group.

Earlier, Stanishev called on his party comrades to support Government decisions and to do more to explain to people the decisions made by the ruling coalition even if "those decisions might seem unpopular".

The BSP, National Movement Simeon II and Movement for Rights and Freedoms formed the ruling coalition after the June 25 Parliamentary elections.

Kostadin Paskalev, a prominent BSP figure and an adviser to President Georgi Purvanov, said in a November 21 interview with a Bulgarian-language newspaper that "nothing dramatic will happen at the congress. Stanishev will be re-elected as leader, a new Supreme Council will be formed, and the Government programme will be approved by the delegates".

Paskalev said that there was no in-fighting within the party, and the congress was going to be "constructive for the BSP". 

A keynote report that the BSP Supreme Council is to present on December 3 will say that among the main reasons that the BSP lost the mayoral elections in Sofia on November 5 was the complete lack of mobilisation of the BSP's Sofia branch.

In an interview with Nova Televisia on November 23, Premianov and BSP MP Christian Vigenin said that the Sofia branch needed a change of leadership.

They said that Ovcharov should concentrate on his job as Economy and Energy Minister so that "a line can be drawn between the post of Government and party official".

They said that the fact that the party had lost the mayoral elections in the capital city showed that "a change is needed".

Another reason for the defeat, they said, was the shrinking number of BSP members.

According to party records, the BSP has lost more than 8000 members in the past three years. At the beginning of 2002, there were 210 000 party members. By the end of 2004, this number fell to 201 708. The party is still preferred by older Bulgarians, and pensioners comprise 56 per cent of the BSP membership.

This is why the congress will discuss how to deal with the aging of the BSP electorate, and another important problem for the party, its lack of qualified staff.

On November 14, the BSP Supreme Council proposed that at least 30 per cent of the delegates to the congress should be young people.