Bulgaria’s new National Assembly continues to fail to elect Speaker
On the third day of its first sitting, Bulgaria’s 51st National Assembly again failed to elect a Speaker, meaning that it remains not properly constituted and unable to proceed to transact business.
November 15 was largely a repeat of November 11 and 13, and amid the enduring stalemate, Parliament decided that the first sitting would resume on November 20.
At stake is not just who becomes Parliament’s principal presiding officer. The 2023 amendments to the constitution put the Speaker on the list to be a candidate caretaker Prime Minister.
Similarly to the first two occasions, matters on November 15 started out with five parliamentary groups each nominating a candidate: Raya Nazaryan from Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, Andrei Tsekov from We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, Petar Petrov from Vuzrazhdane, Natalia Kiselova from the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left; this time, ITN changed its nominee, putting forward Silvi Kirilov, who as the oldest MP has been presiding over the first sitting.
None of the five got enough votes to be elected, and just as on the two previous days, Nazaryan and Tsekov, as the two who got the most votes, went to a second round.
Nazaryan got 69 votes, as before only from the GERB-UDF MPs, while Tsekov got 56, from WCC-DB and MPs from the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms coalition formed around Movement for Rights and Freedoms founder Ahmed Dogan.
Borissov has insisted that as the largest parliamentary group, it is GERB-UDF’s prerogative to have the Speaker elected from its ranks. He has indicated that unless this happens, talks on getting a government elected may not proceed.
“When they (the other groups) win elections, they should propose a Speaker. Why are we going to elections?” Borissov told reporters on November 15.
He expects that there will be a development on the matter next week, because, in his words, “the parties are starting to group together”.
In the course of the November 15 meeting, there was an altercation between WCC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov and Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski, reportedly sparked after Petkov alleged to Peevski that Peevski had bought 200 000 votes in the October 27 early elections.
Outside of Parliament, the number of applications to the Constitutional Court for the partial or total annulment of the October elections now adds up to four.
Please support The Sofia Globe’s independent journalism by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon:
