site.btaParliament Reverses Decision to Suspend Plenary Sittings

Parliament Reverses Decision to Suspend Plenary Sittings

Sofia, October 18 (BTA) - The National Assembly on Tuesday reversed its decision to suspend its plenary sittings between October 12 and November 4, but decided not to convene between November 2 and 4, in the week of the presidential elections.

The reversal was proposed by BSP-Left Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and passed by a vote of 177 to 0, with 10 abstentions. The subsequent move to get the legislature off work between November 2 and 4 was proposed immediately afterwards by Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Floor Leader of the ruling GERB party. The idea had been suggested by GERB much earlier. During those three days, the lawmakers will not use cars of the National Assembly, except when parliamentary committees meet.

The BSP-Left Bulgaria objected by saying that the proposal for the November 2-4 suspension was not on Tuesday's official parliamentary agenda. Similarly, Atanas Atanassov (Reformist Bloc) accused the legislature's interim chairman Dimiter Glavchev (GERB) of breaking the parliamentary rules of procedure and argued that GERB's proposal should have been added to the agenda. Chetin Kazak (MRF) pointed out that the proposal was not put to debate.

Glavchev then tried to solve the problem by asking the MPs to vote and revoke the decision about the November 2-4 suspension, as requested formally by Georgi Bozhinov (BSP-Left Bulgaria), but the majority defeated the motion.

The National Assembly will therefore resume regular sittings on Wednesday.