4 Bulgarian Prosecutors Elected for Supreme Judicial Council

The four prosecutors, elected late Friday filled the Supreme Judicial Council professional quota. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian prosecutors have elected the four members of Bulgaria's new Supreme Judicial Council, VSS, from their professional quota.

This election filled entirely the professional quota in VSS.

Last Sunday, six members of VSS, from the judiciary quota were elected after twenty four hours of voting while the investigators designated their VSS member Wednesday.

11 VSS members come from the parliamentary quota while the other 11 are from the professional one – 6 judges, 4 prosecutors and 1 investigator.

In the eve of the election, the Bulgarian online news agency Dnevnik wrote that magistrates have spoken off-the-record, saying the vote has been agreed on under the table a while ago and the prosecutors who have shown strong principles in their positions have been prevented from making the final cut.

According to Dnevnik, three out of the four that ended up being elected were known well in advance and had their seats secured. The forecast proved right since the three listed by the publication - Deputy Chief Prosecutors, Kamen Sitnilski and Mihail Kozharev, and Plovdiv Appellate Prosecutor, Rumen Boev, all allegedly close to the executive power, became VSS members.

The fourth one is the Blagoevgrad Regional Prosecutor, Elka Atanasova.

Sitnilski and Boev were elected at first round with 167 and 158 votes respectively, while Kozharev got 130 at the first round and 120 at runoff. Atanasova got 99 at the first round and 100 at runoff.

The current VSS' mandate ends on October 3.

The Members of the Parliament will elect their representatives on September 26.

The new VSS will be key for Bulgaria since it will elect the new chief prosecutor, and the president of the Supreme Court of Cassations.

The crucial election of the new VSS comes in the aftermath of several large-scale scandals in which the current one was entangled and the latest EC report on Bulgaria's five-year progress under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), highlighting the misguided policies of VSS, the inconsistent application of the principle of independence of the judiciary and the implementation of reforms under external pressure.

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