MPs Rejects Proposal to Dismiss Speaker of Bulgaria's Parliament

Bulgaria's Parliament has rejected the proposal of center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) to dismiss Parliament Speaker Mihail Mikov.

At a re-vote, the proposal was backed by 82 MPs, rejected by 110, with no abstained.

Nationalist party Ataka did not vote on the motion.

Mikov's resignation was requested by GERB on September 26 due to a serious breach of the Parliament's rules of procedure.

Last Wednesday, when the debates on the no-confidence vote were supposed to take place, GERB MPs refused to register for voting, citing the absence of MPs of nationalist party Ataka, thereby boycotting the sitting due to the lack of a quorum.

On the following they, they once again attended the sitting but refused to register.

However, Parliament Speaker Mihail Mikov did not demand electronic registration, the quaestors counted enough MPs in attendance, and the debates on the no-confidence vote were launched through a procedural trick.

GERB MPs responded to the measure by leaving the plenary hall, vowing to refer the breach of the Parliament's rules of procedure to the Constitutional Court and to demand the resignation of the Parliament Speaker, and initiating a second no-confidence vote on the same basis – the failed investment planning policy of the government.

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