The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) officially left the honorary president Ahmed Dogan without the party he founded DPS. Sokola is going to the elections with "Alliance for Rights and Freedoms". Yesterday, Rumen Yonchev registered the "Alliance for Rights and Freedoms" coalition with the CEC. to participate in the upcoming elections on October 27. It includes the SBOR and "Agricultural Union" parties.
With its decision from today, the SAC rejected the appeal of the coalition "Democracy, rights and freedoms - DPS" against Decision No. 3636-НС/09.09.2024 of the CEC, which refused to register the coalition for participation in the elections for people's representatives on 27.10.2024
According to Administrative Case No. 8364/2024 of the Supreme Administrative Court, it was established that on 02.09.2024 at 00.05 hours, the coalition "DPS - New Beginning" submitted an application electronically ( annex No. 5-NS), signed with electronic signatures by both representatives of the coalition. This application was not reflected in the register, nor was it considered by the CEC, accordingly there are no findings as to whether it meets the requirements of the Election Code (EC) and decision No. 3546-NS of August 27, 2024 regarding the registration of parties and coalitions in CEC for participation in the scheduled parliamentary elections.
According to the provisions of art. 18a of the APC and art. 8, para. 2 of the Law on Electronic Government (ELG), administrative bodies are obliged to provide all services within their competence and electronically, unless the law provides a special form for performing separate actions. The Electoral Code does not provide for special actions for registration, such as e.g. notarization of signatures, which is why the application for registration of a coalition to participate in elections can be signed both manually and electronically. An identical interpretation of the law was also adopted in decision No. 7665 of 10.08.2022 of the Court of Appeal under adm. case No. 7039/2022, which is fully shared by the present composition. In this sense is the decision No. 369 of 19.10.2021 of the Administrative Court - Stara Zagora under adm. case No. 614/2021
In Decision No. 3546-НС/27.08.2024 of the CEC in Section XII – Submission of documents for registration in item 43 it is noted that the CEC starts accepting documents for the registration of parties and coalitions for participation in the elections for people's representatives from 9.30 a.m. on 02.09.2024 in the building of the National Assembly. Pursuant to Art. 140, Para. 1 of the IC parties, which formed a coalition to participate in elections based on a common decision, submit an application for registration to the CEC no later than 45 days before election day. According to this legal norm, the starting date for submitting documents is 02.09.2024, and the legal norm does not specify a starting time.
The above gives reason to assume that the applications of the two coalitions, in the formation of each of which PP DPS participated, were not submitted at the same time. The statement of the coalition - "DPS-New Beginning" was submitted before the application of the "Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - DPS" coalition, already at 00:05 on 09/02/2024 electronically. According to the rule of Article 29, paragraph 6 of the APC, requests submitted by e-mail before the expiry of a certain period, even if outside the working hours of the authority, are considered to have been submitted within the period.
After “DPS - New beginning“ submitted its documents at 00:05 on 02.09.2024, they were submitted within the period of art. 140, paragraph 1 of the IC. The Supreme Magistrates accept that the CEC cannot limit the terms given in the Electoral Code by its Decision. In this case, the working hours of the administrative body, objectified in its previous decision concerning the organization of its work, are irrelevant.
Given the above, the Supreme Magistrates accept as correct the decision of the CEC, which refused the registration of the coalition "Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - DPS" to participate in the elections. “DPS - A New Beginning“ has been registered by the CEC for participation in the elections, which is why the prohibition of Article 127 of the IC makes it inadmissible to register another coalition with the participation of the same political party – DPS.
The decision in administrative case No. 8393 of 2024 is final.