GERB

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's party GERB on August 15 named its candidates for mayors of Plovdiv, Rousse, and Haskovo in the forthcoming local government elections in October 2019, reports BNT

The incumbent mayors in the three cities are from the GERB party, but they are not among the newly named candidates.

Deputies from GERB, "United Patriots" and "Volya" undertake a legislative initiative to change the Electoral Code, which proposes to abolish the possibility of a machine vote in local and parliamentary elections. The news was announced by the chairwoman of the legal commission and GERB member Anna Alexandrova at a briefing in the parliament, BGNES reported.

The deputies approved the drastic reduction in parties' and coalitions' state funding from BGN 11 to BGN 1 per actual vote. The change was made with the second-reading amendments to the State Budget Act, BGNES reported.

The proposal for a smaller party subsidy was submitted by the Council of Ministers, and was supported by 119 votes. deputies  voted against and 16 abstained.

Mariya Gabriel has given up the post in the European Parliament, NOVA said. Thus, the sixth member of GERB, who goes to Brussels, becomes Lilyana Pavlova.

Mariya Gabriel gathered the most serious preferential vote and took the first position of the GERB MEPs for the EP. The party won a total of six seats.

Bulgaria's Central Election Commission on May 28 published data based on 100% of the tally sheets processed by the regional election commissions show that five Bulgarian parties will have seats in the next European Parliament, reports BNT, 

Voter turnout in Bulgaria's elections for Members of the European Pareliment held on May 26 was 33,27%.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has assured in front of the Bulgarian National Television that all members of GERB, who have committed violations of the purchase of apartments and the construction of guest houses, will be held responsible.

Delyan Dobrev resigned as MP in the 44th National Assembly, GERB announced. Dobrev took this decision after a conversation with the President of GERB and Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov.

Maryia Garbiel, Bulgaria's current European Commissioner, leads GERB's list for the European elections, reports BNT. 

At a forum in the National Palace of Culture on 31st of March, GERB (majority partner in the ruling coalition) announced the list of candidates for the elections for members of the EP.

On March 31, GERB will formally submit its list of candidates for MEPs. This was announced by the chairman of the GERB National Electoral Staff Tsvetan Tsvetanov during a meeting with the regional coordinators of the party in the country, the GERB press center announced.

MPs from "Volya" also leave the National Assembly. This was announced by party leader Veselin Mareshki at a briefing in parliament. However, it was not clear what are the reasons for leaving after Mareshki said he could not yet share them.