The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the appeals of Political Party "Movement for Rights and Freedoms" against decision No. 3588 and No. 3589 of 09/04/2024. of the Central Election Commission and terminates the proceedings in both cases.
The appeals of the Political Party "Movement for Rights and Freedoms", represented by Delyan Peevski, against the CEC, which refused to delete the registration of the formation allowed to participate in the new elections on October 20, 2024, and against the refusal to delete the registration of the PP "Movement for Rights and Freedoms", allowed to participate in the partial elections on 20.10.2024
"The Supreme Magistrates accept that the court is not regularly approached with a challenge to the decision of the CEC. According to the certificate presented by the Sofia City Court dated 27.08.2024, the chairmen of the DPS are Delyan Peevski and Jevdet Chakarov, who represent the party jointly and separately. Art. 10, para. 2 of the Statute of the DPS provides that when two chairmen are elected, they exercise their powers, defined in para. 1, together and separately and participate in the composition and activities of the bodies of the DPS, when this is provided for in Statute", the decision says.
"A party in the proceedings is the DPS party, but its chairpersons, who can represent it separately, and whose rights are the same, perform opposite procedural actions (disputing the decision of the CEC, refusing to contest, withdrawing the refusal, withdrawing the withdrawal of the refusal), which make it impossible to establish the actual will of the legal entity, a party to the proceedings. These contrary procedural actions prevent the possibility of the court to establish whether the will of PP DPS as a participant in the election process is to contest the decision of the CEC regarding deletion of the registration or not to do so. With their procedural actions, the representatives of the political party actually ask the court to replace the will of the party itself as a voluntary association of citizens with electoral rights, established in accordance with the Law on Political Parties. However, this is in complete contradiction with the principle of political pluralism established in Article 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and represents an inadmissible interference in the activities of the parties, aimed at assisting in the formation and expression of the political will of the citizens, as well as with the principle impartiality of the court. In the proceedings regarding registration for participation in the elections, respectively deletion of the registration, the court should not resolve disputes arising between the two representatives of the PP DPS, who, as already pointed out, have the same and equal rights", noted the Supreme Court.
"This is why the court accepts that, in the specific case, a valid challenge to the CEC's decision has not been submitted, which is why the appeal should be left without consideration, and the proceedings in the case terminated. The rulings in administrative cases with numbers 8345 and 8346 of 2024 are final," the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court also states.