Bulgaria's Constitutional Court Names New Chair

Dimitar Tokushev, a former Dean of Sofia University's Faculty of Law, has been elected as the new chair of Bulgaria's Constitutional Court.

A total of seven Constitutional Court members voted for Tokushev, while former Supreme Court r deputy heads Rumen Nenkov and Blagovest Punev received two votes each. Tsanka Tsankova remained last with just one vote.

Tokushev was appointed as Constitutional Court member by former left-wing President Georgi Parvanov (2002-2012).

The Constitutional Court , which resolves claims against election results and for their recall, is finally functioning after a five-month stalemate.

Judge Grozdan Iliev, who was elected in a hurry by the Parliament two weeks ago to fill the vacancy at the Constitutional Court, took the oath of office on Friday and was released from his previous post of Deputy Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassations (VKS).

He was nominated by the center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, whose cabinet resigned on February 21 amidst unprecedented since 1997 protest rallies against poverty, monopolies and the political model of ruling the country.

The filling of the vacancy came after the notorious failure of the bids of judge Veneta Markovska and prosecutor Galya Gugusheva amidst accusations of shady practices, conflict of interests, and money laundering.