Bulgaria’s Parliament holds final sitting ahead of April early elections
Bulgaria’s 48th National Assembly held its final sitting on February 2, as President Roumen Radev decreed that it be dissolved ahead of the April 2 early parliamentary elections.
The 48th National Assembly was elected on October 2 2022 and held its first sitting on October 9.
The latest Bulgarian legislature to have a short lifespan amid a succession of early parliamentary elections, this Parliament approved 53 laws.
Notable among these were the amendments to the Electoral Code, approved with the backing of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), restoring voting with a paper ballot in elections.
Opponents of the amendments slammed them as intended to serve the interests of these parties, dubbing the BSP, GERB-UDF and the MRF the “Paper Coalition”.
The 48th National Assembly also voted to require the caretaker government to provide weaponry to Ukraine, a move that opponents – the pro-Russian Vuzrazhdane and BSP – have taken to the Constitutional Court.
Following Radev’s decree dissolving the National Assembly and setting the election date, the Central Election Commission announced changes to the number of MPs to be elected from various electoral districts.
These changes were made in the light of the results of the September 2021 national Census.
The city of Sofia will elect four more MPs – three from the 23rd multi-mandate district and one from the 24th district.
The cities of Plovdiv and Varna each get one more MP.
On the other hand, Dobrich, Lovech, Montana, Pazardzhik, Pleven and Rousse will each elect one fewer MP.
Radev also announced a caretaker government, although he made only one change to the line-up of the one that took office on August 2: Naiden Todorov, an orchestra conductor, becomes Minister of Culture.
This is the fifth time that Radev has appointed a caretaker government since he became head of state in January 2017.
(Photo: parliament.bg)
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