site.btaUPDATED Parliamentary Committee Hears Three Candidates for Constitutional Court Judges

The National Assembly Constitutional Affairs Committee on Thursday gave a hearing to the three candidates for Constitutional Court judges from the parliamentary quota.

Filling of the two vacancies is long overdue, as the term of the sitting judges expired two years ago. The nominees are MP Desislava Atanasova of GERB-UDF, former judge Borislav Belazelkov of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, and MP Tsveta Rangelova of Vazrazhdane.

All three have submitted the requisite documents.

Numerous lawmakers of all parliamentary groups and representatives of the civil-society sector attended Thursday's hearing.

After the meeting, Committee Chair Nadezhda Yordanova said that, theoretically, the full house can take a vote on the nominations as early as on Friday, but this is up to the National Assembly Chair and the MPs attending the plenary sitting.

Belazelkov told the Committee that "in order to have an independent court, there should be an independent prosecution service". "I have resisted pressure for nearly 40 years, and I hope to be able to stand out against it during the next seven years, too," the former judge in the Supreme Court of Cassation said, referring to the term of a Constitutional Court member.

Atanasova said during her hearing that she will form her inner conviction only on the basis of her understanding of the values, principles and rules of the Constitution. She insisted that, judging from the qualities she has exhibited so far, she can hardly bow to anybody's pressure and that if anything of the kind happens, she will make it public.
 
Rangelova said that, if elected, she would stay out of the consideration and adjudication of the case challenging the constitutionality of the latest revisions to the Constitution. The candidate regretted Parliament's failure to introduce an individual constitutional complaint, blaming the lack of political will and disagreement among those who moved the draft amendments.