Sofia, September 11 (BTA) - A new President was elected at the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) Monday. Georgi Cholakov was supported by 20 members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) leaving the other contender for the office, Sonia Yankoulova, with only five votes.

President Rumen Radev now has to decree Cholakov's election. He can also choose to impose a veto and thus return the procedure to the SJC, but he can only do this once.

The SJC hearing of the two candidates lasted close to five hours, including three hours during which Cholakov answered questions.

Outgoing SAC President Georgi Kolev, who supported the winning candidate, said after the hearing that he is a fine professional with in-depth knowledge of the administrative procedure.

SJC member Yulia Kovacheva, who supported Yankoulova, said that there are lots of challenges and problems at SAC.

The reform-minded President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Lozan Panov, remained silent almost to the final vote. He said that he would support Yankoulova and that the SAC President heads an institution which is here to safeguard citizens' rights. He criticized the SJC for failing to ensure an awareness campaign to explain the importance of this election, for holding the procedure during the summer and called it "the election of silence".

He also said that the vote on the new SAC President is taken 22 days before the end of the life of this SJC "when all members are looking elsewhere".

He suspects that Cholakov's election might be influenced by backstage deals.

Kalin Kalpakchiev, another pro-reform SJC member, expressed support for Yankoulova and said she is "the good administrative judge".

Fellow SJC member Yuliana Koleva recalled the big support Cholakov got from various places.

In his remarks during the hearing, Cholakov spoke about the need for the administrative courts to ensure top-quality administrative justice and gain the people's confidence. He declared himself in favour of electronic administrative justice and said that SAC has a new case-management system which is to go into operation very soon.

He said that the prosecution service should remain in the judiciary rather than go to the executive branch.

He also expressed support for a proposal by the Justice Ministry to ask the EU Structural Reform Support Service to analyze the Bulgarian court system and its workload.