Magdalena Lazarova-Prodanova will act as Bulgaria's prosecutor general. The plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) chose her with 17 votes in favour and 2 against. The decision can be appealed within 14 days.

This story follows our earlier report on the Prosecutors' College proposal that Lazarova take over from Vanya Stefanova.

Lazarova is a deputy prosecutor general and next in seniority after Stefanova, whose term ends on 22 October. Stefanova is currently acting prosecutor general. The Judicial System Act limits such a stand-in role to six months, during which Lazarova will run the prosecution service.

Plenum member Atanaska Disheva objected to taking up the item. She said members received the papers only yesterday afternoon, so the required three-day notice was not met. Her proposal for an extraordinary meeting before 22 October was rejected, with 15 against and 3 in favour.

Disheva also asked for a hearing of Lazarova before the vote. One member backed this, and 18 voted against.

Disheva said breaches of procedure and haste are unacceptable in such a choice. She noted that seniority is not a binding principle, although it has been applied so far, and that it was not followed when Borislav Sarafov was picked as acting prosecutor general.

Disheva said she had learned that Lazarova sat on the panel that ruled on the pre-trial restrictions for Yavor Zalatanov in the "Eight Dwarfs" affair. She said she could not get the minutes of that hearing because the deadline was not met. In her view, Lazarova's rulings in that case would say a lot about her professional qualities.

Plenum member Ognyan Damyanov replied that a few weeks ago an acting head of the Supreme Administrative Court was chosen under the same procedure, and nobody protested then. He said he had heard no bad word about Lazarova in the debate on the merits.

Supreme Court of Cassation president Galina Zakharova said acting prosecutor general and acting head of a court are not new posts. So the procedure for choosing them does not have to match the one for permanent office holders, she said.

In a letter yesterday, justice minister Nikolay Naydenov asked the college to give the plenum a real choice between candidates for acting prosecutor general. He wanted them to state their positions and their vision for the prosecution service over the next six months.

Kalina Chapkanova, a member of the Prosecutors' College, commented on the letter at the college's last meeting. In her view, following one criterion without exception, as the SJC has done so far, ensures impartiality. Widening the criteria carries a risk: "If the set of criteria is widened, we could be accused of a certain partiality or bias in choosing a given candidate."