Bulgarian President nominates Prosecutor-General Velchev to Constitutional Court
Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev has nominated Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev to the country’s Constitutional Court, the President announced on October 11 2012.
Velchev (50) has been Prosecutor-General since 2006. He was the youngest person ever appointed to that post. At the time of his appointment, he was a university law professor and head of the legal department of Plevneliev’s predecessor, socialist Georgi Purvanov.
Plevneliev said that two other possible candidates also had been discussed but the decision was to nominate Velchev. The two other candidates were not named.
The Constitutional Court of Bulgaria is made up of 12 members, a third appointed by the country’s unicameral Parliament, the National Assembly, a third appointed by the President and a third appointed by the justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Supreme Administrative court.
Constitutional Court judges are appointed for nine years.
The constitution limits the Prosecutor-General to a single term of seven years.
The National Assembly, in a vote on October 31, will choose two nominees. Four candidates by been named for the election by Parliament – Deputy Speaker Atanas Atanassov, nominated by centre-right ruling party GERB; Deputy Speaker Ekaterina Mihailova, nominated by the right-wing Blue Coalition; judge Tatiana Vurbanova, nominated by the socialists; and judge Veneta Markovska, nominated by independent MPs.
(Photo, of a June 28 2012 meeting at the Presidency between Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev, left, and President Rossen Plevneliev: V Nikolov/president.bg)
