Bulgarian Parliament September 27 sitting cancelled over lack of quorum
The sitting of Bulgaria’s National Assembly scheduled for September 27 was cancelled because of a lack of a quorum.
At least 121 of the Bulgarian Parliament’s 240 MPs were required to register as present for the sitting to proceed.
Speaker Tsveta Karayancheva called two 10-minute adjournments, but the required number was not raised. At the second attempt, 97 MPs registered as present, and at the third, 106.
Deputy Speaker Yavor Notev, of the United Patriots group, the minority partner in government, blamed the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party for the failure to muster a quorum.
On September 4, BSP leader Kornelia Ninova used the opening of the new session of the National Assembly after the summer recess to say that most of her parliamentary group were leaving Parliament to “go to the people” while 20 would remain to defend the party’s positions.
In Bulgaria’s 240-seat National Assembly, the BSP has 79 MPs.
“We want the dissolution of Parliament and early elections,” Ninova said at the time.
Soon after that, the BSP’s political opponents satirised Ninova’s party after photos emerged showing that “going to the people” involved the leadership partying at a high-priced spa hotel.
Notev said that part of the BSP parliamentary group had been present in the hall but had not formally registered as such.
He said that he could not answer why a parliamentary group that had called for an emergency sitting during the summer recess now was absent during the time of a regular sitting.
