site.btaProtesters Demand Prosecutor General's Election Procedure Terminated

Protesters demanding a termination of the procedure for election of prosecutor general gathered in front of the Palace of Justice in downtown Sofia on Tuesday evening. This was the second event organized by the Justice for All initiative.

Tram traffic was blocked on the central Vitosha Boulevard for a while. There was tight police presence in the area.

Lawyer Emil Georgiev from the organizers of the protest said: "We have gathered again, after the parliamentary elections, to draw attention to the flawed election of a new prosecutor general - flawed because it is made by an illegitimate body whose term has expired. It is also flawed because of the candidate." The procedure for the prosecutor general's election must be terminated either by a legislative amendment or by referring the matter to the Constitutional Court, Georgiev said.

The protesters want the election procedure for Supreme Administrative Court president terminated as well.

Continue the Change (CC) co-leader Kiril Petkov said the entire parliamentary group would back a petition filed by the Bulgaria United for One Goal (BOEC) civic movement for annulment of the October 27 parliamentary elections. The coalition of CC and Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) will also petition the Constitutional Court for checks on all voting sections, which the coalition believes will expose ballot fraud. In addition, CC-DB's proposal for a sanitary cordon around Delyan Peevski, one of the chairmen of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (which ran in the elections as MRF-New Beginning) is seeking to eliminate any possible influence of bought votes in Parliament.

Bozhidar Bozhanov MP of CC-DB said his group's top priority in Parliament is to stop Borislav Sarafov from being appointed prosecutor general. "We will seek a majority to stop Sarafov's election," he said, calling for a Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) elected according to fair, clear and open rules, with no "Peevski quota" in it.

Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov was nominated for election to the post of Prosecutor General as the only candidate on October 10 at the last of four meetings of the SJC Plenum at which candidates could be named. Sarafov was Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev's deputy until June 16, 2023, when the SJC voted Geshev out of office for undermining the prestige of the judiciary. 

January 16, 2025 is the date set for a hearing of the candidate and for voting to elect the new Prosecutor General.