Parliament voted for Zhelyu Zhelev, a former dissident writer and professor who heads Bulgaria's main opposition alliance, to become the country's first democratically elected president.

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Zhelev was elected to the mostly ceremonial post Wednesday after the former Communist Party, now known as the Socialist Party, threw its support to the man who had been one of its chief critics for nearly 25 years.Running unopposed, Zhelev won 284 votes, while 105 members of Parliament abstained. He needed 267 votes, or two-thirds of the 400-member Parliament.

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