For third day, Sofia city council fails to elect chairperson

At its third meeting, held on November 30, Sofia city council again failed to elect a council chairperson, leaving it unable to start transacting business.

Unlike the first two sittings, held on November 13 and 20, the largest group in the council, We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria-Spasi Sofia, did not nominate a chairperson.

Boris Bonev, who had been the group’s candidate, said that this time around it was not putting forward a nomination and called on his colleagues to vote according to their conscience.

As at the previous meetings, the second-largest group, GERB-UDF, declined to nominate a candidate and abstained from voting.

Two rounds of voting, held by secret ballot, saw no candidate – Diana Tonova from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Krassimir Gulubov from Vuzrazhdane and Plamen Danailov from ITN – get the 31 out of 61 votes required to be elected.

In the first round, 45 councillors voted, and there were 27 spoilt ballots. In the second round, Tonova got eight votes, Gulubov seven and there were 25 spoilt ballots.

The council is to meet on December 7 for a further attempt to elect a chairperson.

Should the council fail to elect a chairperson and thus be unable to transact business, and this situation continues for three months, it faces being dissolved and new municipal elections held.

(Photo: Sofia municipality)