site.btaUPDATED Parliament Resumes First Sitting in Ninth Attempt to Elect Chair

The first sitting of Parliament resumed on Wednesday with the ninth attempt to elect a chair of the 51st National Assembly.

Last week, Parliament again failed to elect a chair of the legislature. On Friday, GERB leader Boyko Borissov announced that they were withdrawing the nomination of Raya Nazaryan and would support Natalia Kiselova, who is the nominee of BSP - United Left on the condition the Left should gather a majority without Vazrazhdane and MRF - New Beginning.

Kiselova and Silvi Kirilov from There Is Such a People went to the runoff, but both failed to receive the required number of votes. 

Meanwhile, on Sunday another candidate for the post emerged - the national leadership of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) proposed to its coalition partners Yes, Bulgaria and Continue the Change to nominate DSB Chair Atanas Atanassov. 

Speaking to journalists in Parliament GERB leader Boyko Borissov said that GERB-UDF will not nominate Raya Nazarian for chair of the National Assembly will support BSP-United Left candidate Natalia Kiselova.

Four nominations for the post of Parliament speaker were put forward on Wednesday - Atanas Atanassov of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, Natalia Kiselova of BSP-United Left, Petar Petrov of Vazrazhdane and Silvi Kirilov of There Is Such a People.