Unprecedented: MPs failed to elect a Speaker of the Parliament

The 48th National Assembly on October 19 failed to elect a speaker after two repeated votes, creating an unprecedented situation.

There were four initial nominees for the post

• Rossen Zhelyazkov of GERB; former minister of transport, IT and communications;
• Nikola Minchev of Continue the Change; the Speaker of the previous Parliament who was voted out of office by the opposition;
• Kristian Vigenin of BSP for Bulgaria; MP in seven parliaments, was Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly four times;
• Petar Petrov of Vazrazhdane, a lawyer.

At the first voting, none of the candidates managed to gather the support of the majority of those present in the hall. Therefore, a run-off was held between the nominees who received the most votes - Rosen Zhelyazkov and Nikola Minchev. In the second round of voting, none of the candidates received the support of the majority.

After a break and consultations, the MPs started a new procedure for electing the Speaker of the National Assembly. During the repeat procedure, the MRF proposed Yordan Tsonev as their nominee for Speaker, while GERB-UDF, "We Continue the Change", "Vazrazhdane" and "BSP for Bulgaria" re-nominated their candidates. Thus the nominees became five.

The debates on the new procedure for the election of the President of the 48th National Assembly are currently underway.

GERB-UDF accused "We Continue the Change" of deliberately creating a constitutional crisis with the aim of not having a functioning parliament. "We Continue the Change" responded that the constitutional crisis does not start from today, but today it is simply clear that GERB-UDF is not able to gather a majority in support of its candidate.

First sitting of Bulgaria’s newly-elected 48th Parliament

Tomorrow at 10.00, the National Assembly will meet again in an attempt to elect a Speaker. Before that, the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups will gather for a council in an attempt to find a way out of the stalemate.