Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) ruled on May 30 that the opposition coalition, known in Bulgarian as the Blue Coalition, should be registered.

With its decision, the court overturned an earlier decision of the Central Election Committee (CEC) that the coalition could not be registered because of legal and administrative unclarity over who was the formal leader of one of the coalition partners.

On May 28, CEC effective refused to register the coalition when representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) refused register, to deny registration or to allow a further three days for the coalition to produce additional documentation, Bulgarian daily Dnevnik said.

The coalition immediately announced it would appeal the CEC decision before the SAC.

"BSP and MRF are afraid of a real fight with the right-wing coalition and are looking for an administrative victory," United Democratic Forces leader Martin Dimitrov was quoted by Dnevnik as saying. 

On May 30, Konstantin Penchev, chair of the SAC, said the question was whether it was legally possible to have a political party whose leader had refused to lead the party and whether it would be legally possible to exclude a party from political life, Dnevnik said.
The SAC could not allow that to happen, Penchev said.

"We are extremely thankful to the SAC who have once again showed their class," Dimo Gyaourov, lawyer for the opposition coalition was quoted as saying.
"It is strange what happened with the CEC and surely society doesn't need this," he said.
"This is something that is needed by those who are convinced they can beat this coalition by technical administrative means," Gyaourov said.

In a media statement, CEC spokesperson Ralitsa Negentsova, said the CEC would adhere to the court's ruling and register the coalition for parliamentary elections.

The court ruling could be appealed within 24 hours after publication.