Constitutional Court opens second case over the election of the new constitutional judges

“Vazrazhdane”, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and "There is Such a People" (TISP) on January 24 submitted a joint request to the Constitutional Court against the decisions of the Parliament last week to elect Desislava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov as constitutional judges.

The Constitutional Court opened a case on the request of the MPs and Konstantin Penchev was appointed as rapporteur. He is also the rapporteur for the case initiated after President Rumen Radev referred to the Constitutional Court over the election of the two new judges.

President challenged the constitutionality of the election of two new Constitutional Court judges

In their motives, the opposition MPs challenge both the election and the 9-year term in office, for which the judges are elected, written in the decisions of the National Assembly, which contradicts a ruling of the Constitutional Court, according to which the newly elected judges have to finish the term of office which already started two years ago, BSP said.

"We believe that the election of these two constitutional judges was conducted in violation of the Constitution, the fundamental principles of the Constitution, such as the Principle of the Rule of Law and the Principle of Transparency and Legitimacy. We hope that the Constitutional Court will rule and overturn these two decisions of the Parliament as being contrary to the Constitution," said Petar Petrov of “Vazrazhdane”.