site.btaCourt Declares Unconstitutional Parliament's Decision on Length of Terms in Office of Judges Atanasova and Belazelkov

The Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the decision of Parliament, by which Desislava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov were elected as constitutional judges from the parliamentary quota, but only in the part about the length of their terms in office. The decision was unanimously adopted by ten votes.

Desislava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov were elected by the 49th National Assembly on January 19 to replace Grozdan Iliev and Anastas Anastasov. At the time, deputies wrote in their decision that the newly elected would have a full nine-year term, despite being voted in more than a year late.

On January 23, President Rumen Radev referred the election of the new judges to the Constitutional Court. The head of State insisted on declaring unconstitutional the National Assembly's decisions on the election of constitutional judges. In his reasoning, the President pointed out that the principles of openness, transparency, publicity and reasoning had been violated and could not be replaced by formal deliberations and procedures aimed at legitimizing a prior agreement between the ruling political forces.

There has also been a complaint to the Constitutional Court by MPs from Vazrazhdane, BSP, and There is Such a People (TISP). According to the three parliamentary groups, these decisions contradict the basic law.