The Parliament adopted procedural rules on the terms and conditions for proposing candidates for the chairman, deputy chairman and members of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC), the hearing of the candidates in the parliamentary committee on economic policy and innovation and the procedure for election by the National Assembly. 111 deputies from the ruling majority voted in support of the rules, 76 were "against" and 20 abstained.
The people's representatives may propose candidates within 7 days of the adoption of the procedural rules, with the proposals being accompanied by written reasons that argue the good professional reputation of the respective candidate.
The candidates will be checked for affiliation with the former State Security and the intelligence services of the Bulgarian People's Army and heard in the Committee on Economic Policy and Innovation.
Non-profit legal entities registered for public benefit activities, and professional organizations, no later than three days before the hearing, may submit to the relevant committee opinions on the proposed candidates, including questions to be asked of them.
The media may send questions to the committee to the candidates, which will also be asked of them. Anonymous opinions and signals are not considered.
In the voting in the plenary hall, the candidate who received more than half of the votes of the present members of parliament will be considered elected, the procedural rules stipulate.
The “Continuing Change-Democratic Bulgaria“ (PP-DB) objected to the 7-day deadline for proposing candidates and requested that it be 14 days, according to the parliamentary rules. However, their proposal to extend the deadline by one week was rejected with 62 votes “for“, 124 against and 19 abstentions.
Nadezhda Yordanova (PP-DB) commented that of these seven days, only five are working days. According to her, the entire shortening of the deadlines suggests that the ruling party is proceeding with the election because they have already distributed their quotas and chosen their people. This is not a step towards forming state bodies with public trust, she noted.
Alexander Ivanov (GERB-SDF) accused her of misleading the hall and overexposing the seven-day deadline. On February 7, these rules were adopted by the relevant committee and for a week you already know and can prepare candidates, he pointed out. You have carried out procedures with much shorter deadlines, Ivanov commented.