site.btaConstitutional Court Opens Case over Method of Allocating Election Commission Quotas

The Constitutional Court has opened a case to review the constitutionality of the method used to allocate quotas in the Central Election Commission (CEC), the court's press office said on Friday. The request was submitted by 49 members of the present National Assembly. The rapporteur in the case is Judge Yanaki Stoilov.

During consultations at the Presidency in June, when nominations for CEC members were presented to President Iliana Iotova, some parliamentary groups expressed disagreement with the procedure. Bozhidar Bozhanov of Democratic Bulgaria said that if no changes were made to the presidential decree setting out the rules for the election of CEC members, their only option would be to challenge it before the Constitutional Court, while seeking support from the other parliamentary groups.

President Iotova said at the time: "We are applying the Election Code as it was adopted. When we began work on the rules, we worked on the provisions of the law as it had been passed. The law did not envisage a party holding an absolute majority."

Representatives of Vazrazhdane also said they would seek support from MPs to challenge the President's decree on the composition of the CEC before the Constitutional Court.