New Bulgarian Parliament Sworn In Amid Seven Protests, Fails to Elect Speaker

Bulgaria's newly elected MPs failed in their first task yesterday: electing the chairman of the new parliament. The next attempt to elect the chairman of the National Assembly will take place tomorrow at a meeting on Wednesday, BTA reports.

The 51st National Assembly of Bulgaria was sworn in the day before. The first day of the new 240-seat parliament was attended by 234 MPs, President Rumen Radev, Vice President Iliana Yotova, interim Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, Patriarch Daniel, members of the interim cabinet, representatives of the judiciary, diplomats, etc.

The first task of the MPs was to elect the Speaker of the Parliament. The voting was held in two rounds, with Raya Nazaryan from GERB-ODF and Andrei Tsekov from Keep the Change - Democratic Bulgaria in the second round. Tsekov received 68 votes in favour, 86 against and 85 abstentions. Nazaryan also received 68 votes, 121 were against and 50 abstentions.

In total, five candidates were nominated in the first round - Nazaryan, Tsekov, Petar Petrov of Vozrazhdane, Natalia Kiseleva of the BSP - United Left and Nicolet Kuzmanov's There Is Such a People (TISP).

Following the failure of the procedure, TISP faction leader Toshko Yordanov proposed that the oldest MP, TISP's Silvi Kirilov, be elected acting chairman of the National Assembly and remain in office until a majority is formed to elect its own chairman.

The new National Assembly began its work under the influence of a total of seven protests in central Sofia. Supporters of Delian Peevski's DPS - New Beginnings held a rally near the parliament building, which began very early in the morning. The protesters were unhappy with Continue Changes - Democratic Bulgaria because of their attacks on vote-buying against Delian Peevski and the rival MRF faction, which won seats in parliament through the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms coalition.