Burgas District Court is left without a candidate for the new Supreme Judicial Council, after the council's judges' chamber refused to let Krasimira Doneva into the race for one of the seats reserved for judges. The reason: her nomination never reached the council's email inbox.

Members voted 6 to 2 after a report from council member Dragomir Koyadzhikov, who represents the Commission on Attestation and Competitions.

Doneva says she filed the papers on time, on 4 September. When she later couldn't find her name on the candidate list, she contacted the council and was told her nomination had not come through. She says she also never got a message saying the documents had failed to arrive.

The council's IT team looked into the case and said it was unlikely she hadn't gotten such a message. Doneva filed the documents again, but comparing them with the 4 September attempt did not show clearly whether the files matched.

Koyadzhikov said the system had also rejected files from several other candidates because the files were too large. Those candidates got a bounce-back message, contacted the council and managed to file their nominations.

The judges' chamber's decision can be appealed.

Updated (06.10, 13:56): According to Burgas24.bg, Krasimira Doneva's application was turned down because she filed it late, not because it failed to reach the council by email as first reported. The Judges College will post its decision on the Supreme Judicial Council's website right away. It can be appealed within three days to a panel of three judges from the Supreme Court of Cassation and two from the Supreme Administrative Court. The rejection is based on Article 29g(3) of the Judicial System Act, read together with Article 29c(1) of the same act.