site.btaUPDATED National Assembly Adjourns for Lack of Quorum

The National Assembly adjourned Thursday’s sitting for lack of a quorum. The MPs were unable to conclude the discussion and vote on first reading five bills amending the Criminal Procedure Code.

MPs objected that committee sittings were going on at the same time as the plenary sitting. It is not possible for committees to meet during a plenary session, commented Delyan Dobrev of GERB-UDF and appealed to the Chair to find a solution.

National Assembly Deputy Chair Yordan Tsonev of MRF announced a quorum check, which showed that there were 76 MPs in the chamber, out of 121 required.

This leaves for Friday the vote on the bills amending the Criminal Procedure Code, which are legislative initiatives included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. One of the bills contains changes proposed by the caretaker government to create a mechanism to investigate the Prosecutor General.

Later on Thursday, caretaker Justice Minister Krum Zarkov commented on the failed parliamentary session in a Facebook post. “Some are sly, others are afraid, or say yes when they mean no, they lie. Together, they have a majority in the 48th National Assembly and are stopping the adoption of the law introducing a mechanism for investigating the Prosecutor General. Millions of Bulgarians continue to be hostages to the "genius tricks" of a few players and the cowardice of their subordinates. For how long?" the post reads.