President refers to the Constitutional Court over the election of new judges

President Rumen Radev on January 23 referred to the Constitutional Court a request to declare the decisions of the National Assembly on the election of constitutional judges as unconstitutional. In his reasoning, the Head of State recalled the newly adopted Article 91b of the Constitution, which obliges the National Assembly to respect the principles of openness, transparency, publicity and reasoning when electing members of bodies in order to guarantee their independence.

MPs elected Borislav Belazelkov and Desislava Atanasova as constitutional judges.

According to the head of state, these principles have been violated and cannot be replaced by formal discussions and procedures aimed at legitimising a prior agreement between the ruling political parties.

There is also a deliberate attempt by the majority of MPs to circumvent the Constitutional Court's rulings on the term of office, the presidency said in a statement.

The President recalled that non-compliance with the Constitutional Court's rulings is a violation of the Constitution itself.

According to the Head of State, such an approach cannot be tolerated and poses a risk to the prestige of the Constitutional Court. It is of utmost importance for Bulgarian statehood that this prestige be protected.

That is why President Rumen Radev calls for the newly elected constitutional judges not to be sworn in before the Constitutional Court itself rules on the compliance of their election with the constitutional procedures and requirements.

CC: The newly elected constitutional judges will not get a full term in office

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In the decision they voted on, the MPs wrote that they elect Atanasova and Belazelkov as constitutional judges for a term of 9 years. According to the constitution and the law, that is the term of constitutional judges.

Earlier in January, the ten constitutional judges unanimously ruled that the term had already begun and in practice those who entered late would have a shorter term. Otherwise, this could disrupt the renewal mechanism of the Constitutional Court. What is specific about this institution is that every three years four constitutional judges leave and four new ones enter - respectively appointed by the President and elected by the general assemblies of the Supreme Court f Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Parliament. So, for example, in the autumn of this year, Parliament must elect another judge, the President must appoint two judges and the SCC and the SAC must also appoint one judge. If the term of office that has begun is not continued, but started from the beginning, it may turn out at some point that there are more than 12 judges in the CC, and according to the constitution they should be a particular number. That is why the CC unanimously declared that individual term in office, not distortion in the renewal, should prevail in the renewal of the composition.

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