Unprecedented: MPs Failed to Elect a Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament (UPDATED)

The 48th National Assembly failed to elect a Speaker of the Parliament after two procedures with two re-votes each, creating an unprecedented situation. Finally, the presiding Vezhdi Rashidov announced that the procedure will continue tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m.

The decision came after two unsuccessful procedures and two re-votes. After that, the chairman of the PG of GERB, Desislava Atanasova, suggested that the meeting be interrupted.

"This is likely to happen countless times unless either the need for consensus in the room or the rules are changed. But if they are changed, they will be contrary to the Constitution. The only chance of changing the rules is to propose another kind of voting. However, I am not inclined to do so, and I think it is proper to interrupt the meeting so that it continues tomorrow at the time announced by the chairman," said Atanasova.

Four were initially nominated for the post - Rosen Zhelyazkov from the PG of GERB-SDS, Nikola Minchev from "We Continue the Change", Petar Petrov from "Vazrazhdane" and Kristian Vigenin from BSP.

At the first vote, 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. And in the re-voting, none of the candidates received the support of the majority.

After a break and consultations, the deputies started a new procedure for electing the Speaker of the National Assembly. In the repeated procedure, the DPS proposed their nomination for the chairman of the 48th National Assembly in the person of Yordan Tsonev, and GERB-SDS, "We Continue the Change", "Vazrazhdane" and BSP again nominated their candidates. Thus,...