site.btaTeodora Tochkova Elected Chief Judicial Inspector

Teodora Tochkova Elected Chief Judicial Inspector

Sofia, April 2 (BTA) - Parliament on Thursday elected Teodora
Tochkova Chief Judicial Inspector. The vote was 195 in favour, 1
against and 1 abstention.

Of the 161 MPs that took part in the vote for the second
contender Vera Chochkova, 35 voted for, two against and 124
abstained.

Tochkova graduated in law from Sofia University and meets the
requirements under the Judicial System Act. Since 2007 she has
served as president of the Administrative Court in the southern
town of Haskovo and has 21 years' experience as a judge,
according to a report by the parliamentary legal affairs
committee.

During the debate, MP Maya Manolova of BSP-Left Bulgaria
supported Tochkova's nomination because of her extensive
experience, clear vision about the role of the Inspectorate with
the Supreme Judicial Council and convincing performance during
the hearing by the parliamentary legal affairs committee.

Parliamentary legal affairs committee chair Daniel Kirilov of
GERB too voiced support for Tochkova.

Independent MP Velizar Enchev, who voted against Tochkova's
nomination, said yet again there was a very strange coalition
after Wednesday embrace between the Bulgarian Socialist Party
and GERB about the military bases.

MP Stanislav Stoilov said that Ataka did not take part in the
vote as "the match was fixed."

National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva said that the outcome
of a single vote arising from a constitutional obligation for
Parliament to elect with a two-thirds majority the chief
judicial inspector is not a result of a coalition. She said such
a speculation "is very primitive, shallow, untrue and an
outright lie."