Bulgaria: Prime Minister and Cabinet Resign Week after Election Results Announced Officially

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the Council of Ministers are obliged to table resignations at the first session of the new National Assembly. It will most likely be convened by the president a week after the results submitted by the Central Election Commission (CEC)are published in the State Gazette, said expert in constitutional law Prof. Plamen Kirov.

For This Morning talk show on Nova TV, he said that formation of an expert government is highly unlikely as politicians from different parties barely speak to each other.

The professor rules out the hypothesis that no political force will nominate cabinet members and a prime minister.

"The CEC should announce in the State Gazette the elected 240 members of the National Assembly. When that happens, the president has some technological time to set the date for the first sitting of parliament. He will convene it within one month after the elections," Kirov told Nova TV.

"At the first session, the Members of the National Assembly will be sworn in. It will be chaired by the oldest MP. Then a speaker of parliament will be elected," he added.

"At the first meeting, the Council of Ministers must resign. This is required under Art. 111 of the Constitution. However, ministers will continue to perform their functions," the former constitutional judge said.

"The procedure for handing the mandate for the formation of a government is laid down in Art. 99 of the Constitution. The president must first consult all parliamentary groups. He will then hand an exploratory mandate within seven days, to a person designated by the largest parliamentary group. This could be the leader of the party or a Member of the National Assembly," he added.  

  "The mandate can be returned immediately. The second-largest parliamentary group may then try to form a cabinet in the same way. Within seven days, the composition and structure of the Council of Ministers must be indicated. The vote in parliament runs in two phases. First is the election of the Prime Minister, and then the ministers he proposed and the number of ministries are voted on," explained Prof . Kirov.

  "At the third attempt to form a government, the president has a free hand to choose for himself which parliamentary group will get a mandate," he added.

With such a fragmented parliament, it is difficult to change the Constitution, the constitutional law professor said.