After three days of deliberation and countless votes for different nominees, a President of the Bulgarian National Assembly has finally been voted – the oldest member of parliament Vezhdi Rashidov who has so far been acting as honorary President of the 48^th National Assembly.

• MPs fail to elect a National Assembly Speaker for the second consecutive day

In search for a compromise solution, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova nominated Vezhdi Rashidov for President of the National Assembly, stating she had been authorized to do so by the majority at the Presidents’ Council on behalf of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, GERB-SDS, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Bulgarian Rise. Ultimately, Rashidov was voted President of the Bulgarian National Assembly by 139 votes “for”, 73 “against”, 27 abstained. 

“I promise to try and work with all of you, I promise to be consensual, to listen to what you are saying. Tone down the bravado, it doesn’t help, it only gets in the way! Show more wisdom, people are expecting your decisions,” Vezhdi Rashidov said after the vote.

Vezhdi Rashidov is an MP from the GERB-SDS coalition, a controversial figure from the first years of Bulgaria’s transition to democracy. He was born in 1951 in Dimitrovgrad. Having graduated “Sculpture” from the Sofia Arts Academy, he later started lecturing there. During his political career he has been minister of culture in two Boyko Borissov cabinets, and MP in six parliaments.