Bulgarian Parliament’s latest attempt to elect Speaker fails
Failure continues to dog Bulgaria’s 51st National Assembly’s attempts to elect a Speaker, as the eighth day of the first sitting – held a month and two days after this Parliament was elected – saw the standoff endure.
However, in contrast to the previous days, GERB-UDF leader Boiko Borissov withdrew the candidacy of former Speaker Raya Nazaryan, narrowing the initial field to three.
In the long succession of previous votes, Nazaryan had got votes only from GERB-UDF MPs.
Borissov told reporters that GERB-UDF would support Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left candidate Natalia Kiselova at the second round, but only if Kiselova was not supported by Vuzrazhdane and Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning.
The first round saw Vuzrazhdane candidate Petar Petrov eliminated, as happened on all the previous days.
In the first round, Kiselova got 87 votes and Silvi Kirilov – the ITN MP who as Parliament’s oldest member has been presiding over the first sitting since it began on November 11 – a total of 65.
This was the first time that Kiselova got to the second round, thanks to the absence of Nazaryan. Kiselova’s first-round votes came from the BSP – United Left and some of GERB-UDF’s MPs.
In the second round, held after a succession of adjournments for consultations, neither Kiselova nor Kirilov surpassed the threshold of half plus one of MPs present to be elected.
Kiselova again got 87, from BSP – United Left and GERB-UDF, while Kirilov got 65, from some of the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria MPs, Vuzrazhdane, the Ahmed Dogan loyalist group the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF), ITN and Mech. In previous votes, ARF backed Kiselova, but not on November 29.
The split in WCC-DB over the Kirilov candidacy that caused ructions on November 28 continued.
The first sitting is to continue on December 4.
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