The election of a new Judicial Board is not a priority for either parliament or the current panel
The Union of Judges in Bulgaria has published an open letter to the Supreme Judicial Council, which answers questions related to the upcoming and long -delayed election of a new staffing body. Dnevnik publishes the position of the largest referee organization without editorial intervention.
By a letter dated March 19, 2025, the Union of Judges in Bulgaria (UBF) was invited to express an opinion on issues related to the election of SJC members from the quota of judges, prosecutors and investigators. We believe that, before answering the specific questions in the letter so sent, we should pay attention to several principle situations that are paramount. Such are the principles established in the Constitution of a certain term of the SJC members, a ban on the repetition of the same term and a direct election by the judges, prosecutors and investigators of the representatives of the so -called « professional quota » in the SJC.
In view of this, the resolution of a technical issue, which is the manner of conducting the election for members of the SJC, should be in accordance with the above principles and should not be a means of breaching or bypassing them.
The Judicial Council elects between three options for how to vote for new members
The term of office of the election members of the current panel of the Supreme Judicial Council expired on October 3, 2022, ie. More than two and a half years ago, equivalent to half of the five -year term established in the Constitution. The latest amendments to the Judiciary Act provided for a 6-month period, considered as January 21, 2025, in which the National Assembly and the bodies of the judiciary to initiate a procedure for a new election of members of the SJC.
| It is worried that a week before the expiration of half of this period, the rules under which the relevant procedures should be held, which indicates that neither the majority in the National Assembly nor that in the SJC have a priority to fulfill the said legal obligation. It’s even more worrying SJC inaction to be implemented an electronic remote voting system so farto guarantee accurate reporting of the votes submitted, the secret of the vote, the inability to manipulate and to meet the information security standards. |
Back in November 2023, the SJC Plenum was presented by the developer of the current system, stating that it can no longer be used and the only way to process is its overall rewriting, ie replacement with a newS In this sense, the assumption of the issues formulated in the SJC letter of possible « improvement » of the current electronic voting system remain completely incomprehensible, after its developer has denied this opportunity a year and a half ago. Guided by these fundamental considerations, we present the following answers to the questions sent to us by the SJC:
1. What is the preferred method of voting from the ones provided for in the current editorial of the JSA:
– through paper newsletters;
– Mixed:
+ With a paper newsletter and an electronic remote vote
+ With paper newsletter and machine voting.
We take into account the SJC’s opportunity for judges to express their preferences for the voting method. However, we believe that the SJC should fulfill the powers assigned to him by law to adopt the rules for conducting the election in accordance with the principles established in the Constitution and the Judiciary Act (JSA). In that sense and The current regulatory framework makes it possible to make selection only through paper newsletterswhich is also the main way of making the direct election of the representatives of the so -called « professional quota » among the election members of the SJC.
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It is not possible to introduce mixed voting to this stage, insofar as there are no grounds provided for in § 78 and § 79 of the Law on Public Procurement Act (promulgated, SG, amend. – SG 49/2018). No electronic remote voting system has been introduced to guarantee the secret of voting and free will – the current system, in addition to the non -compliant information security standards, is also practically unusable, given the certificates of the main software applications that have leaked before 2023. It has not been implemented by the SJC and a machine voting system to guarantee the secret of the vote and the free will, which meets the requirement of economic expediency in the law.
Therefore, we believe that in the implementation of the obligation to initiate the procedure for the election of SJC members from the professional community by 21 July 2025, which implies the adoption of the relevant rules before the expiration of the deadline, the only possible way of conducting the election is through paper newsletters.
Within this period it is impossible to introduce a new electronic remote vote system, given the lack of an ordered order for this and the deadlines for conducting the relevant procedures for selecting a contractor, award and execution. We believe that within this period it is generally possible to introduce a system for machine voting through the use of the machines with which the elections for MPs and bodies of the local authorities are held, but this requires a study for the relevant economic expediency, and the SJC has not published data on such a study.
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2. If the vote is only on paper, do you consider that it should be held centrally only in Sofia, with the SJC bearing the costs of transport, stay /day /and overnight or should be organized sections in the country /how much, where and by what criteria to be determined.
As we have already stated, at the present time and in the current regulatory framework, voting on paper newsletters is only the possible way of holding the choice. Insofar as the law requires the formation of sections of every 500 judges, prosecutors and investigators, it is impossible to hold the choice of different places in the country. The provision of Art. 29P, para. 2 of the JSA explicitly provides that the costs of holding the general meetings for the election of SJC members are at the expense of the SJC budget.
| The organization of paper ballot voting sections in the country can only be made upon amendment of the JSA in the part for the number of judges, prosecutors and investigators needed to form a single section. |
At present, no legislative initiatives have been taken in this regard, neither by the Council of Ministers nor by MPs. If they are taken, we find the appropriate appellate regions as a suitable criterion, not those of the district courts. This is because there are significant differences in the numbers of judges, prosecutors and investigators between the different regions of district courts, with some of this number so small that both the staffing of the relevant section committees and the maintenance of the secret of the vote is called.
3. Do you believe that the current electronic voting system should be refined or a completely new system should be developed and implemented.
As we mentioned above, the possibility of « improving » of the current electronic voting system was denied by its developer itself in the fall of 2023 before the SJC, A Its use is also practically impossiblegiven the expired maintenance of its main software components.
The implementation of a new electronic voting system will require an extension of the six -month period for starting the selection procedure with a new amendment to the JSAbecause in the remaining three months it cannot be expected to be announced and successfully complete a public procurement for a new electronic system. However, this also means an endless extension of the current SJC’s term, which is unacceptable. There is no guarantee that with an extension of a new electronic remote voting system will be introduced with a few more months of this period, given the inaction demonstrated so far in this direction of the current SJC composition.
4. Is there a need for legislative changes relevant to the direct elections of SJC members of the professional quota; The form of an election campaign of the candidates and the status of the SJC members (to indicate the relevant proposals briefly).
When answering this question first, we would like to note The ongoing more than three months of inaction of this leadership of the Ministry of Justice should be taken any action with regard to the draft amendments to the JSA, prepared by the previous panel of the Ministrysubmitted for public consultation, which ended on January 8, 2025. In the framework of this public consultation, we presented an opinion that we maintain and consider that in the course of compliance with our opinion and the submission of the respective project to the National Assembly, the necessary legislative changes and the election of the HAP should be made.
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A major change that would ensure the actual representativeness of the professional community is the preservation of the status of acting judges of the members of the Judicial College of the SJC during their mandate. This would interrupt the tendency of detachment of the SJC members from the community that elected them and would increase the responsibility and accountability of their activity.
| It is necessary to increase the transparency of the election of SJC members by the National Assembly by illuminating the nomination process of candidates, providing the opportunity to be offered by other legal professional communities and universities, limiting the possibility of being made in the so -called « parliamentary quota ». questions, but also to ask them within these hearing. |
The requirements for electronic or machine voting systems used in the election of SJC members by judges, prosecutors and investigators should be legally regulated. The SJC should be provided for discussions between the candidates and a platform for the presentation of their concepts, beyond the envisaged hearing from the relevant general meetings of judges, prosecutors and investigators.
The Union of Judges in Bulgaria is willing to participate in the discussion of these and other possible legislative amendments, but notes that it is necessary to implement such priorities of the Ministry of Justice of the necessary amendments to the Judiciary Act, as to the election of the SJC and their status, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as in respect of questions, as well as their status, as well as their status. Raising, posting and more.
