euinside

Cause and Effect in European Politics and Law

Bulgaria's judicial system is flexible and has something for everybody

Adelina Marini, May 7, 2009

A lot of coincidence along the way of the UDF toward participation in the European elections. Only a day after the Central electoral committee rejected a great part of the signatures, filed by Plamen Radonov for the UDF's registration for the elections thus preventing the Blue coalition from participation, the judge at the Sofia city court made a non-joinder and so the case for UDF's registration could not be solved today. The reason for the decision of the judge are several litigations, filed by all members of the UDF that were expelled from the party on Monday.

Now the court should nominate new judges to register the new leadership of the UDF but it is not clear when this could happen. The ruling of the court should be formal because the Higher court rejected the motives of the Sofia city court to deny Martin Dimitrov's leadership a registration. The Higher court also recommended the Sofia city court to register the new leadership of the party.

The deadline for registration for participation in the European election expires on the 12th of May but the Central electoral committee would allow any party or coalition to file all available documents leaving for the very last moment only those that are not available. This could give the Blue coalition a chance to succeed. But if the Sofia city court delays its decision then not only the Blue coalition's participation in the elections is at stake but also that of the UDF because is Plamen Yurukov wouldn't succeed to gather all the missing signatures he will not be able to register the UDF. The minimum number of signatures required for the registration of a party is 15,000 and the Commission has validated only 14,100.

Another interesting thing in this case is that one of the litigations, filed in the Sofia city court is a complaint that the court has too quickly set a date for the registration of the UDF, which was today.