decisions of the elected party leadership. On 4 May 2009, the NIS voted almost unanimously to revoke the membership of Youroukov, Radonov, and eight other “traitors”. Registration of the Blue Coalition The Central Electing Commission (CEC), a pool of all parliamentary represented parties, refused to register the Blue Coalition for the 2009 elections when the quorum of two-thirds attendance was not met because the delegates from the Tripartite Coalition were absent. On 31 May 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) overturned that decision, amidst allegations from the SAC chairman himself that he was pressured by outside parties. "Finally, after 6 months of artificially produced technical obstacles, we are on the way to victory," Dimitrov said. "Justice has been done, the justices of SAC saved the face of the Bulgarian jurisprudence!” 2009 Elections and aftermath On 5 July 2009, GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) won the parliamentary elections with just below 40% of the vote and 117/240 seats. The Blue Coalition, the conservative Order, Law and Justice party, and the nationalist Attack announced that they would support the First Borisov Government, supporting the government on and off until its resignation in 2013. Inparty elections November 2009 On 29 November 2009, after in-party elections, Martin Dimitrov was re-elected as a leader with 56% of the total vote. His most serious contender was the mayor of the Vitosha district in Sofia, Luben Petrov. Petrov won the vote in Sofia: 911 votes compared to Dimitrov's 495, but the latter crushed him in the rest of the country. Before the elections, Petrov was calling for Dimitrov to step down because of "unsatisfactory performance of the Blue Coalition and not complying with the party's rules". Dimitrov is expected to seek expansion of the Blue Coalition by luring other center-right parties to it. This did not happen, and the coalition dissolved in 2012. Criticism Mr. Dimitrov’s personal style is an issue that was a topic of debate when he was first elected leader of his party. At the beginning, he came across as a young expert with a good reputation and therefore fared well with the public, but Dimitrov was seen as lacking charisma and communication abilities. References External links European Parliament profile European Parliament official photo 1977 births Politicians from Sofia Living people MEPs for Bulgaria 2007 Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgaria) MEPs University of National and World Economy alumni