Sofia  - Bulgarian Premier Sergei Stanishev has been re- elected as chairman of the governing Socialist party, the country's election commission said Sunday.

The commission said that Stanishev won 809 votes from among the 853 delegates at the party's congress, confirming him to another term as head of Bulgaria's oldest and largest political party.

Stanishev, 42, has headed the Socialist party since 2001. He proclaimed his goal of leading the party to victory again in national and Europan parliament elections in 2009.

At their congress, the Socialists declared their aim of replacing the "current neo-Liberalist model with a social alternative" in the economy. Stanishev also promised further increases in state-sector salaries and pensions.

The Socialist party was founded in 1891 and today claims membership of some 200,000. In 1990, when communism collapsed in Bulgaria, the party emerged to succeed the Communist Party, which in its heyday had numbered some 1 million members. (dpa)