Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council has blocked a judge from Burgas district court from running in the election for council members from the judges' quota. The council's judges' chamber voted 6-2 for the decision.
Dragomir Koyadzhikov, a member of the council and of its attestation and appointments commission, presented the case. Judge Krasimira Doneva says she filed her papers on September 4, before the deadline, but later found her name missing from the list of candidates and contacted the council.
Doneva sent her documents again. The council's IT department compared the new submission with her earlier attempt but could not say for sure whether the files matched. The check showed her application never reached the council's email inbox.
The online filing system rejects submissions when a candidate's files are too large, and sends the sender a message saying it failed. Other candidates who got that message contacted the council and still managed to submit their documents on time. Doneva says she never got such a message, but the IT department doubts that's true.
The council's decision can be appealed.