site.btaMPs to Make 10th Attempt to Elect 51st National Assembly Chair

MPs will make a tenth attempt to elect the 51st National Assembly Chair on Thursday. 

On Tuesday, the nominee of There Is Such a People (TISP), Silvi Kirilov, and Natalia Kiselova, nominated by BSP-United Left, reached a runoff. Kirilov, who is leading the first session of Parliament as the oldest MP, was TISP's compromise option after the first unsuccessful attempt of MPs to elect a chair.

Last week, the two of them reached a runoff as well, but an election was never reached, even after the first political force in the 51st National Assembly GERB-UDF withdrew its nominee Raya Nazaryan and gave its support to Kiselova. GERB leader Borissov explained that he was doing this because he was indebted to the left in electing Vezhdi Rashidov as 48th National Assembly Chair. He said that it was absurd to support the nominee of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Atanas Atanasov without talks about a regular government. Before the vote in the hall, CC-DB Co-chair Kiril Petkov said in a Facebook that they would support the candidate of the coalition and candidates from parties that have signed their declaration on a sanitary cordon around MRF-New Beginning.

During Wednesday's vote there were a total of four nominations:  Kiselova, Kirilov, Atanasov, as well as the lawyer Petar Petrov from Vazrazhdane.

After the unsuccessful ninth attempt to elected a Nаtional Assembly Chair, Stanislav Balabanov from TISP commented that with votes from Democratic Bulgaria he could have been elected. He accused the DB of blocking the opening of the 51st Parliament, the start of the legislative programme and the suspension of the election of Borislav Sarafov as prosecutor general.