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Bulgarian MPs fail in their sixth attempt to elect Parliamentary Speaker

Photo: BTA

The Bulgarian MPs gathered in plenary today for a sixth attempt to elect a President, which again proved unsuccessful. 
The candidates Natalia Kiselova from BSP-United Left, Petar Petrov from Vazrazhdane pary, Raya Nazaryan from GERB and Silvi Kirilov from ITN were again put to the vote. Silvi Kirilov from ITN and Raya Nazaryan - GERB-SDS went to the ballot again, but none of them once again gathered the necessary majority.

The Democractic Bulgaria MPs did not take part in the ballot. "Our part of the parliamentary group (DB is part of the PP-DB coalition that came second in the elections) will not participate," said Bozhidar Bojanov of Yes Bulgaria, stressing that they have only 18 votes, on which this election does not really depend. 


The next seventh attempt to elect a parliamentary speaker will be on Thursday, 28 November.

The current situation has turned into the longest first parliamentary sitting in the history of Bulgarian parliamentarism, which has been dragging on since November 11. This has blocked the work of the legislative body, as well as the possibility for the president to hand the first exploratory mandate for forming a government to the winner of the October 27 parliamentary elections - GERB-SDS. 

According to the constitution, "the president, in consultation with the parliamentary groups, shall assign a candidate for prime minister, nominated by the largest parliamentary group, to form a government." This is the procedure for handing down the first cabinet-forming mandate. However, the parliamentary groups to be consulted by the President have not yet been officially announced, as they have yet to be read out by the Speaker of Parliament.

On November 26, the Constitutional Court admitted for hearing the five petitions for partial or complete annulment of the 51st National Assembly elections filed by the PP-DB, Vazrazhdane, ITN, BSP and Velichie. The court ordered recounting of machine and paper votes in 1,777 polling stations. The results of the recounting of votes should be ready by January 10, 2025. 


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