2024-09-11 23:03:38
After the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court to register the Delyan Peevski coalition, the CEC refused independent registration of the movement requested by Jevdet Chakarov
DPS of Delyan Peevski is going to the elections with “DPS – New Beginning”, and that of Ahmed Dogan will play with Alliance for Rights and Freedoms.
The 10-day dispute over which DPS and how to participate in the vote led to this decision.
First, in the late afternoon on Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the CEC to immediately register the “DPS – New Beginning” coalition to participate in the elections. The decision of the judges Rumyana Borisova, Svetoslav Slavov and Tanya Damyanova is final and not subject to appeal.
Late last night, the CEC fulfilled it and voted to register “DPS – New Beginning” to participate in the elections. The decision was taken unanimously with 15 votes in favor.
And the decision of the Supreme Court was reached earlier in the day, after three hours earlier in an open session the court heard the case on the appeal of Peevski’s coalition against the CEC’s refusal to register it. It was decreed by the electoral commission on September 9.
Literally an hour after the SAC ordered the registration of “DPS – A New Beginning” for the parliamentary elections, the leader of the People’s Agricultural Union Rumen Yonchev submitted the documents for the registration of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms and
by the evening he had already received registration for the elections from the CEC
His formation, together with SBOR, was part of the “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – DPS” coalition, with which Jevdet Chakarov’s people initially wanted to participate in the vote. Chakarov himself gave a briefing in which he said that the “authentic DPS” will participate in the elections, and reproached the Supreme Court for “taking a decision in violation of all legal norms”.
On Thursday, the SAC will also hear the appeal of Ahmed Dogan’s DPS coalition against the denied registration of his coalition.
Late on Wednesday evening, the CEC, for its part, cut off Jevdet Chakarov and did not approve his request to register only the DPS party for the elections. The decision was supported by 13 people, with only Sevinch Solakova and Erhan Chaushev voting against.
The saga with the registration of the two DPSs began on September 2, when, after a two-day delay, the CEC registered both coalitions at the same time and without an entry number. The reason was that, by law, the time for submitting the documents is important.
The CEC then gave the two wings until 17:00 on September 9 to withdraw the DPS party from their coalitions. They refused to do so, and so on September 9, the electoral commission denied them registration.
In their reasons from yesterday, however, the supreme magistrates
overturn the decision of the CEC not to give the time and incoming number of “DPS – New beginning”
when submitting the documents. They were sent electronically as early as the first minutes of September 2 – the day registration began. The commission’s decision was criticized by many lawyers who described it as vicious. According to the supreme magistrates, “it was established in an indisputable and undoubted way that the coalition submitted an application electronically at 0.05 hours”.
“It was signed with electronic signatures by both representatives of the coalition,” the judges said. “This application is not reflected in the register, nor has it been examined by the CEC”, they add. That is why there are no findings as to whether it meets the requirements of the Electoral Code and the decision of August 27 on the registration of parties and coalitions in the CEC.
The court accepts that the applications of the two coalitions, in the formation of each of which the DPS party participated, were not submitted at the same time.
And he explains that “DPS – A New Beginning” are ahead of “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – DPS”, because their documents were sent to the CEC 0.05 hours ago on September 2 electronically.
One of the arguments of the opponents of the registration was that the filing started at 9:30 a.m. because that was the CEC’s rules.
Supreme Court justices overturned it. They point out that according to the Code of Administrative Procedure (APC), requests sent by e-mail before the expiration of a certain period, even if outside working hours, are considered to have been submitted within the period.
The decision is also important because
For the second time, the Supreme Administrative Court points out that the electronic signature is equal to the handwritten one
The judges explain that the Law on Electronic Government obliges administrative bodies to provide all services electronically, unless otherwise provided by law. “This necessitates the conclusion that the application for registration of a coalition for participation in elections can be signed either manually or electronically,” say the magistrates.
They also recall a previous decision of the Court of Appeal from August 10, 2022, again regarding the electronic signature. It said that the documents with which the parties appoint their members in the regional election commissions (RIC) may be electronically signed. The Administrative Court in Stara Zagora will also take a decision in support of the electronic signature in the election process in 2021.
Therefore, the magistrates point out that the CEC violated the law by not registering the electronically submitted application from “DPS – New Beginning” in a timely manner in the incoming register of coalitions for participation in the elections. Also
she acted incorrectly by not giving him a serial number and not examining him independently
Instead, the commission attached it to the later submitted paper application, signed by hand by the coalition representatives, and accepted that the application was submitted at the same time as that of “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – DPS”.
According to the magistrates, the instructions for the removal of admitted irregularities that the CEC gave to the “DPS – New Beginning” coalition – that the DPS party should not be present in it because it was in another coalition – are also completely inconsistent with the Election Code.
The decision whether a party will appear alone or in a coalition belongs solely to the party itself, the judges say. They explain that the Electoral Code sets only one limitation – that the party can appear, either independently or only in one coalition.
This prohibition would be violated if there was already a registration
In the course of the court session, the lawyers of “DPS – A New Beginning” Alexander Angelov and Svetlin Panov pointed out that the coalition was created on August 27, and the other on August 29, that is, the DPS party could not have become part of “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms” – DPS”.
They pointed out as an argument that the PG of the DPS gave consent for its name to be used by “DPS – New Beginning”.
The same court, however, refused the participation of Peevski’s coalition in the partial local elections, which will be held in several localities on October 20. The motives of the magistrates are that a DPS party has already been registered for them with an application submitted by Jevdet Chakarov.