Bulgarian parliament rejects proposed government

Prime Minister-designate Nikolay Gabrovski speaks during the National Assembly session’s vote for the new government, at the Bulgarian Parliament, in Sofia. Bulgaria’s parliament on Wednesday failed to elect a government proposed by the center-right GERB party to resolve the years-long political impasse (Valentina Petrova/AP/PA)

Bulgaria’s parliament failed on Wednesday to elect a government proposed by the centre-right GERB party to resolve a political impasse that has gripped the European Union’s poorest member country.

Prime Minister-designate Nikolay Gabrovski, 51, a renowned neurosurgeon who had proposed a technocratic Cabinet, failed to secure a majority in the 240-seat National Assembly, where only 113 legislators voted for his proposed government and 125 rejected it.