site.btaUPDATED New Prosecutor General, SAC President to Be Elected in 2025

In 2025, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) is expected to hold elections for a new Prosecutor General and President of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). Currently, Borislav Sarafov is the acting Prosecutor General, and Georgi Cholakov is the acting President of the SAC.

The procedure for the election of Prosecutor General was opened on June 22 by the Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on the proposal of the Prosecutors’ College. Asked whether it was better to have at least two nominations of candidates in the procedure, caretaker Justice Minister Maria Pavlova said at the time that "if there is more than one candidate, it will only be to satisfy public attitudes and opinions". She refused to make a nomination, despite the legal possibility, and her motive was that she had no right to vote in the election.

Only one nomination was made in the procedure, that of Borislav Sarafov, on October 10, by the members of the Prosecutors’ College Stefan Petrov, Plamen Naydenov and Svetlana Boshnakova.

After the nomination, political comments followed as the BSP, Vazrazhdane and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) demanded that the election procedure be suspended and that Sarafov not be elected. CC-DB even insisted on legal changes to prevent Borislav Sarafov from being elected head of the state prosecution service. On this issue, There Is Such a People (TISP) expressed support. Ahmed Dogan’s Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) also declared that this SJC should not elect the Prosecutor General and the President of the Supreme Judicial Council. The MECh party also demanded the termination of the procedure for the election of the Prosecutor General through urgent legal amendments, as well as stripping of its powers an SJC with an expired term in office.

“The SJC is legitimate and can take decisions, although the parliamentary quota of its members are sitting in office past their term,” said Rosen Zhelyazkov from GERB after the nomination. In late November, GERB-UDF submitted a request for interpretation of the Constitution to the Constitutional Court with the question, "When the term in office of the members of the SJC has expired, does this body continue to fully exercise its constitutional powers?"

A similar request was made by CC-DB, and the Constitutional Court on December 19 rejected the MPs' queries.

Shortly after Borislav Sarafov's nomination, the Bulgarian Judges Association said in a position paper that the current composition of the SJC should not elect the new SAC President and Prosecutor General. Lawyers from all over the country demanded the same and organized protests. Citizens' organizations also expressed their dissatisfaction.

The Chamber of Investigators took the opposite view: that the SJC should conduct the procedure for the election of Prosecutor General and head of the SAC. According to the chairman of the Association of the Prosecutors in Bulgaria, Vladimir Nikolov, the SJC is put in a position where it is obliged to exercise its powers in relation to the election of the two. Otherwise it would commit another violation of the Constitution and the Judicial System Act.

President Rumen Radev said that this SJC has no legitimacy to elect the Prosecutor General of Bulgaria. According to him, none of the actions of the SJC so far inspire confidence either in the professional circles, or in society.

Calls to stop the two elections are a call for the SJC to violate the Constitution, which is unacceptable, the SJC said in a position voted at a meeting of the Plenum.

“I have the necessary solutions to each of the current problems,” said the nominee for Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov in a position received in BTA. “I can now declare that if I am elected Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria, I will work daily and purposefully to restore the sense of justice in society, to enforce the principle of the rule of law, the political neutrality of the institution, and the protection of the independence of the judiciary,” Sarafov said.

Sarafov relies on countering organized crime, corruption crimes and those related to transport trauma and domestic violence. He expresses confidence that the Prosecutor's Office will be the initiator of joint actions with the Ministry of the Interior, other special services and control institutions, proactively and as a result of its analytical work, motivating them to work more vigorously and giving procedural direction to their work.

The election of Prosecutor General will be on January 16, 2025.

The procedure for the election of SAC President was opened in October. No nomination was made during it, which is why the SJC decided to restart the procedure on November 21. Again, no nominations were received, and the procedure was terminated.

The term in office of the current President of the SAC, Georgi Cholakov, expired, but on November 12 he was appointed acting President of the Court until the election of a replacement.