2024-09-10 20:01:18
Judges confused by “challenge, refusal to challenge, withdrawal, then withdrawal of withdrawal”
The Supreme Administrative Court admitted it was confused by what the two factions in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms wanted. On Tuesday, they heard two cases about the local elections, and on Wednesday – about the parliamentary ones.
“A party in the proceedings is the DPS party, but its chairmen (Delyan Peevski and Jevdet Chakarov), who can represent it separately and whose rights are the same, carry out opposite procedural actions (disputing the decision of the CEC, refusing to contest, withdrawing the refusal, withdrawal of the withdrawal of the refusal),” the judges wrote in their decision. However, according to them, this made it impossible to establish the actual will of the legal entity – the party that is a party to the proceedings.
“These contrary actions prevent the court from establishing whether the will of the DPS as a participant in the election process is to challenge the decision of the CEC regarding deletion of the registration, or not to do so,” the magistrates also state.
According to them, the representatives of the party “actually ask the court to replace the will of the party itself as a voluntary association of citizens with voting rights”. However, the magistrates say this is in complete contradiction to the principle of pluralism enshrined in the constitution.
If the court took someone’s side, it would be an inadmissible interference in the activities of the parties. And it was not the job of the court to resolve the disputes between the two representatives of DPS, who had equal rights.
The Supreme Court left without consideration the appeals of the DPS with chairman Delyan Peevski against two decisions of the CEC, which refer to the participation of the party with chairman Jevdet Chakarov in the partial local elections on October 20.
On Wednesday, the dispute continues, as the SAC is hearing two more cases on appeals by DPS against the CEC’s refusal to register a coalition in which DPS – Delyan Peevski is a member.