The Supreme Administrative Court rejected the appeal of the “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – DPS” coalition against the CEC’s refusal to register the coalition for participation in the elections for people’s representatives on 27.10.2024, according to a court announcement.
In the case, it was established that on September 2, at 00:05, an application was submitted electronically by the “DPS – New Beginning” coalition, signed with electronic signatures by both representatives of the coalition, the judges added.
According to them, the application was not reflected in the register, nor was it examined by the CEC, accordingly there are no findings as to whether it meets the requirements of the Election Code.
According to the provisions of the Law on Electronic Government, administrative bodies are obliged to provide all services within their competence and electronically, unless a law provides a special form for performing individual actions.
The Electoral Code does not provide for special actions for registration, such as e.g. notarization of the signatures, which is why the application for registration of a coalition to participate in elections can be signed both manually and electronically, says the announcement of the Supreme Court sent to the media.
In a decision of the CEC, it is noted that the commission 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 September 2 in the building of the National Assembly. According to 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 the election day. According to this legal norm, the starting date for submitting documents is 09/02/2024, and the legal norm does not specify a starting time, the announcement also says.
On Wednesday, the court finally decided that the election commission should register “DPS-New Beginning” – the coalition of Delyan Peevski, which includes DPS, “Bulgarski Glas” and “New Leaders”.
Later it became clear that the wing around Ahmed Dogan will appear in the elections on October 27 through the registration of its new partners – the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms coalition.
The Supreme Administrative Court accepts that the application submitted electronically minutes after midnight on September 2 by Delyan Peevski’s coalition is decisive for the court’s decision.
The magistrates specified today that the applications of the two coalitions, in the formation of each of which the PP DPS participated, were not submitted at the same time. The application of the coalition – “DPS-New Beginning” was submitted before the application of the coalition “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – DPS”, already at 00:05 on 09/02/2024 electronically. According to the rule of Art. 29, Para. 6 of the APC, requests submitted by e-mail before the expiration of a certain period, although 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 hours, the Supreme Magistrates accepted that the CEC cannot limit the terms given in the Election Code by its decision.
In this case, the working hours of the administrative body, objectified in its previous decision regarding the organization of its work, do not matter.
The administrative decision is final.
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