site.btaUPDATED Court Refuses to Consider Appeals by MRF Faction against Election Commission's Refusal to Unregister Rival Faction for Local By-Elections

The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) on Tuesday left without consideration two appeals by one faction of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) against the refusal of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to delete the registration of the other MRF faction for participation in local by-elections on October 20. The court also closed the two cases and the decision is final.

The top magistrates held that the court was not seized of a regular challenge to the CEC's decision. 

According to the certificate submitted by the Sofia City Court on August 27, MRF has two chairmen, Delyan Peevski and Dzhevdet Chakarov, who represent the party together and separately, the SAC argues. Article 10, Paragraph 2 of the MRF Charter provides that when two chairpersons are elected, they shall exercise their powers jointly and separately and shall participate in the composition and activities of the MRF bodies. The Court further says, "MRF party is a party to the proceedings, but its chairpersons, who can represent it separately and who have identical rights, perform contrary procedural actions (challenging the decision of the CEC, waiving the challenge, withdrawing the waiver, withdrawing the withdrawal of the waiver) which make it impossible to ascertain the real will of the legal entity that is party to the proceedings. These contradictory procedural actions hinder the court's ability to determine whether or not the will of the MRF party as a participant in the electoral process is to challenge the CEC's decision not to de-register."

The Court says that with their procedural actions the representatives of the political party "essentially ask the court to act in the place of the will of the party as a voluntary association of citizens with voting rights". "That would be in absolute contravention of the principle of political pluralism established by Article 11 of the Bulgarian Constitution and constitute an inadmissible interference in the activity of political parties as they aim to form and express the political will of citizens - and would also contravene the principle of impartiality of the court."

Article 11 of the Constitution says that "political activity in the Republic of Bulgaria shall be founded on the principle of political pluralism".

SAC argues that its proceedings for registration or deregistration for participation in elections "cannot be expected to resolve disputes between the two representatives of the MRF party, who have identical and equal rights".  In conclusion thereof, the Court says that it leaves without consideration the appeals and closes the cases.