National Assembly fails to elect parliamentary president

After two rounds of voting, the 51^st parliament failed to elect a National Assembly president.

None of the candidates nominated – Natalia Kiselova, Nikoleta Kuzmanova, Petar Petrov, Raya Nazaryan and Andrey Tsekov – managed to get a majority of the votes. Raya Nazaryan (nominated by GERB/SDS) and Andrey Tsekov (nominated by We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria) garnered the highest number of votes, thus reaching the second round of voting, Yet, in the second round they each got 68 votes, falling far short of the 121 votes needed to be elected to the post.

After the failed second vote, Toshko Yordanov from There Is Such a People (ITN) proposed that the most senior MP - Silvi Kirilov, MP from ITN – temporarily act as National Assembly President until a majority is formed capable of electing a president.

A consensus on the matter will be sought in parliament at 11 AM on Wednesday.

• GERB-SDS stated that they will be an indispensable factor in the new parliament
• PP-DB said they would work towards the election of a National Assembly speaker and a government
• Kostadin Kostadinov: There can be no stable government without Vazrazhdane
• The MPs from the new National Asembly take an oath