Petar Stefanov Stoyanov (born May 25, 1952) was the president of Bulgaria from 1997 until 2002. He won the 1996 presidential election as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces. He received more votes than the socialist candidate Ivan Marazev and the Bulgarian Business Block candidate, George Ganchev in the first round. He then defeated Marazev in a runoff. In the 2001 presidential election he received second place, as Georgi Purvanov received 36.3%, Stoyanov received 34.9% and the third major candidate, Bogomil Bonev received 19.2%. Stoyanov lost the runoff with Purvanov 53.3%-46.7%.

CV

• 1976 Law Degree from the "Saint Kliment Ohridski" University of Sofia.
• 1978 - 1990 Practicing lawyer.
• 1990 Spokesman of the Union of the Democratic Forces (UDF) in Plovdiv (Bulgaria's second largest city).
• 1992 Deputy Minister of Justice in the first non-communist (UDF) government of Bulgaria since 1944.
• 1993 Resigned from office after the dismissal of the UDF government.
• May 1993 President of the UDF Legal Council.
• 1994 Elected Member of the 37th National Assembly (Bulgaria's Parliament). Deputy Chairman of the UDF Parliamentary Group. Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Youth, Sports, and Tourism.
• 1995 Deputy Chairman of UDF responsible for domestic policy.
• 1 June 1996 Having won the primaries with 66 % of the 870 000 votes cast Petar Stoyanov was nominated Presidential Candidate of the United Democratic Forces.
• 3 November 1996 Elected President of the Republic of Bulgaria by winning 2 502 517 votes equal to 59,73 % of the votes cast.
• 19 January 1997 Sworn in President of the Republic.
• 22 January 1997 Stepped into office.

Stoyanov speaks English and German. He is married with a daughter (born 1990) and a son (born 1979).