Ruling Party GERB Boasts 97 MP Signatures in Support of Constitutional Amendments

Domestic | May 21, 2015, Thursday // 10:33|  views

Photo by BGNES

97 MPs placed signatures in support of a set of proposed changes to Bulgaria’s Constitution on Wednesday, according to Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.

Tsacheva said in a Thursday interview for the Bulgarian National Television that center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) would continue to collect signatures in support of the constitutional amendments by the end of the week in a bid to secure maximum backing for the bill.

The minimum of signatures required for the submission of the bill to Parliament is 60.

Tsacheva, as cited by dnevnik.bg, made clear that the proposal was backed by the Patriotic Front and the Reformist Bloc, while the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) needed more time to decide on the matter.

Bulgaria’s Parliament Speaker noted that she expected ABV to back the move as a result of the work of the ad hoc parliamentary committee.

She said that the ruling parties were ready to make concessions and could accept some proposals of the opposition tabled between the first and second reading of the bill.

Changes to the Constitution need to be backed by 180 MPs in order to be approved, meaning that the ruling majority will need the support of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) or the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party.

According to dnevnik.bg, the final vote on the constitutional amendments will most probably take place in autumn as the bill has to be backed in three votes.

Tsacheva underscored Thursday that the reform sought to free the judiciary of the influence of political interests.

Some of the most important changes envisage reducing the term in office of the Supreme Judicial Council (VS) from 5 to 4 years, dividing the VSS into two units, including one for judges and one for prosecutors, and introducing an alternative to the individual constitutional complaint.

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Tags: constitutional amendments, constitutional changes, Supreme Judicial Council, VSS, Tsetska Tsacheva, parliament Speaker

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