UPDATE 1-Slovenian parliament rejects Dolenc for cbank governor

Slovenia's parliament on Tuesday rejected Primoz Dolenc as the official candidate to head its central bank after most parties gave him the thumbs-down in a debate.

Dolenc, the bank's deputy governor since 2016, was nominated for the top job last month by President Borut Pahor but only received support from 30 parliamentary members with 39 voting against him.

Slovenia lost its vote on the European Central Bank's governing council in April when former governor Bostjan Jazbec resigned to take a position on the EU's Single Resolution Board. It will regain the vote only after it elects a governor.

The president is likely to nominate a new candidate in the coming weeks, although Slovenian law does not set a deadline for when a new central bank governor must be elected.

Jozef Horvat, of opposition party conservative New Slovenia, told parliament ahead of the vote he believed Dolenc's record at the bank showed his credentials were lacking.

"It is our belief that the Bank of Slovenia did not perform its supervisory function (over the country's banking sector) well ...," he told lawmakers.

Allegations of money laundering have plagued Slovenia's banking sector since it came close to seeking an international bailout in 2013.

Analysts said it will be difficult for Pahor to find a candidate who will get the necessary support because of the balance of power in the new parliament elected in June.

The minority centre-left government, which took power last month, has been unable to agree on a joint candidate.

Even if the five parties of the government coalition, which hold 43 out of 90 parliamentary seats, agree on a candidate, that person would also need at least three opposition votes to be elected.

"This vote is not a typical indication of how things will go in the future since Dolenc did not even enjoy support of the prime minister's party LMS but it indicates that the government will find it hard to secure majority in parliament for its projects," Meta Roglic, a political analyst of daily Dnevnik, told Reuters.  

(With inputs from agencies.)