Possibility to appeal

Article 26 […] (8) The decisions referred to in Items 10, 11, 12 and 13 ofParagraph (1), Items 5 and 6 of Paragraph (2), Items 4 and 5 of Paragraph (3),Items 6 and 7 of Paragraph (4) and Items 2 of Paragraph (5), including therefusals of registration, shall be appealable before the Supreme Administrative Court careof the Central Election Commission within 24 hours after the communicationthereof. The Central Election Commission shall transmit the appeal to the Courtforthwith. The Supreme Administrative Court shall examine the complaint andshall pronounce by a judgment within 24 hours after the receipt of the saidappeal, sitting in public session with the appellant, the Central ElectionCommission and the persons concerned being summoned. The judgment of the courtshall be made public forthwith and shall be unappealable.

Article 107. (1) A candidate for National Representative may beproposed for registration

by only one party orcoalition of parties in not more than two multi-member constituencies.

(2) Where a candidate isregistered by more than one party, coalition of parties or nominationcommittee, the earliest registration shall be valid.

(3) Where a candidatereferred to in Paragraph (1) be registered in more than two constituencies, theearliest two registrations shall be valid.

(4) An independentcandidate may be proposed for registration by only one nomination committee andin only one multi-member constituency.

(5) Where an independentcandidate is registered in more than one constituency, the earliest registrationshall be valid.

(6) The constituencyelection commissions shall notify the Central Election Commission of theregistered candidates not later than 24 hours after the closing date forregistration.

(7) The Central ElectionCommission shall ascertain and shall declare invalid any registrations effectedin violation of Paragraphs (1) and (4). The decision shall be made publicforthwith, and the constituency election commission and the candidates,parties, coalitions of parties and nomination committees concerned shall benotified.

(8) The decision of theCentral Election Commission declaring the invalidity of the registration of thecandidates under Paragraph (7) shall be appealable before the Supreme Administrative Courtaccording to the procedure established by Article 26 (8) herein.

Source: Election Code Bulgaria 2011. State Gazette No. 9 of 28 of January, 2011 http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-REF(2011)008-e

Legislative part:

There is a contradiction in the ElectionCode Bulgaria: The decisions of the municipal election commissions and theconstituency commissions for registration of party candidates during NationalRepresentatives elections has to be appealed before the Central ElectionCommission (Art. 29 (3)), and Article 26(1) provides that the decision of the CECcannot be appealed. However, in Art. 26 (8) and Article 77(4) it is stated thatthe decision by the Central Election Commission is appealable before theSupreme Administrative Court.

Seealso OSCE Report:

“36. The refusal of registration of political parties or coalitionsof parties may be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court.45 In case theCourt overrules the non-registration decision of the CEC, the political partyor the coalition has to be registered, but not later than 50 days (forpresidential, parliamentary and European Parliament elections) or 65 (formunicipal elections) before election day. Thereseems to be a contradiction between Article 26(8), which specifies that CECdecisions cannot be appealed and Articles 83(3) and 90(3), which indicate thata CEC decision on party registration may be appealed to the SupremeAdministrative Court. Also, these rules seem to imply that a party or acoalition of parties may be denied registration if the Court does not respectthe time-limits laid down in the Code. If the court decision was made within 50or 65 days (depending on the type of elections) before election day,registration would no longer be possible, and the party or coalition inquestion would be de facto denied registration. This situation may not occurvery often; however, there ought to be safeguards for applicants thatregistration cannot be denied on grounds that have no connection with thefailure of applicants to meet the criteria set out in the law. In this spirit,it would be important that deadlines for notifying denials of registration tothe parties concerned be specified in Articles 83(5) and 84(7) and 90(5).[…]  56. In connection with the 2009 parliamentaryelections, concerns were expressed by both OSCE/ODIHR and the PACE Ad HocCommittee with regard to the lack of written procedural rules concerning thereview of complaints and appeals lodged with the CEC. The criteria upon whichthe CEC based its decision of what constituted a complaint were unclear, as wasthe appropriate form of its decisions. It is recommended that the Codeexplicitly require that the CEC adopts procedural rules for its decisions inwriting as well as for those applying to lower election commissions. Allelection commissions should be required to issue written decisions and dulyargue all their decisions.” (OSCE/ODIHR Joint Opinion on the Electoral Code ofBulgaria 2011 http://www.osce.org/odihr/80841)