After 8 – hours of electing procedure for Chairman of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) and in less than two minutes vote, the Supreme Judicial Council failed to make a successful choice early today.
Supporting Judge Tanya Raykovska voted 15 members, six were “against”, and three abstained. For Judge Pavlina Panova voted nine members, eight were against and seven abstained. By provisions of the law to have a valid choice are need at least 17 votes for a candidate. SJC will now have to announce a new procedure. So the choice for the Chairman of the SCC will be held after the parliamentary vote, which is October 5.
After the vote, Judge Panova said in front medias that was not surprised by the result. “As Man, involved in such a race, in such event, you must have the courage to anticipate and any development of the procedure,” said Judge Panova.
Asked if she thinks this choice depends on the political situation, she said that a lot of it is willing to respond that it depends noted that the SJC itself has tried to schedule the election for President of the SCC before the parliamentary vote to demonstrate independence from the political situation.
She refused to give her opinion will she re-join the race, and mostly because one possible future candidature again will depend on the availability of nomination of at least five members of the SJC.
Judge Tanya Raykovska left the building of the Supreme Judicial Council of the side entrance and journalists could not even talk to her.
About an hour SJC members took to discuss the merits of the two candidates. Noticed that in favor of one or the other candidate spoke only importers of the respective nominations. The other members of the board remained silent, or urged to be made optional with the result.
Professor. Lazar Gruev put an end to the debate by saying, “I want to believe that the SJC, in its decision will be commensurate with the expectations of the democratic spirit manifested by election of the President of the SCC. Good news is that every Bulgarian citizen who had the patience to follow the procedure, colleagues and people will be able to compare their choice with that which we will do. I would like to believe that we will make the right choice for SCC, good for the judiciary and the best judges of the SCC. “
Original article in Bulgarian by Ralitza Petrova at Legalworld.bg