The Treaty of Berlin had also stipulated…

The Treaty of Berlin had also stipulated that Bulgaria would elect an assembly of notables to meet at Turnovo to prepare a constitution and to choose a prince who would be confirmed by the powers.

By the time the constituent assembly of two hundred and thirty duly convenes in Turnovo in February 1879, conservative and liberal political tendencies have emerged and rapidly coalesced into parties.

The liberals advocate continuing the alliance of peasants and intelligentsia that had formed the independence movement, to be symbolized in a single parliamentary chamber; the conservatives argue that the Bulgarian peasant class is not ready for political responsibility, and therefore it should be represented in a second chamber with limited powers.

The framework for the Turnovo constitution is a draft submitted by the Russian occupation authorities, based on the constitutions of Serbia and Romania.

As the assembly revises this document, the liberal view prevails; a one-chamber parliament or subranie will be elected by universal male suffrage.

Between the annual fall sessions of the subranie, the country will be run jointly by the monarch and a council of ministers responsible to parliament.