The battle for Bulgaria's new Chief Prosecutor, among the three candidates nominated for the post, is expected to be very fierce.

The first to be nominated, Sotir Tsatsarov, current Chairman of the Plovdiv Regional Court, started his career in the judiciary 20 years ago as judge at the Asenovgrad District Court, and has always been a judge. He already submitted a concept for his work at the highest prosecutor's office in the country, focusing on staff development, the quality of investigation and on presenting sound evidence in Court.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Galina Toneva, was second to be nominated. Her judicial career spans for 27 years over all possible positions at all levels, both as judge and as prosecutor. Elected Deputy Chief Prosecutor in 2009, she recently vowed to continue reforms launched by her former boss, Boris Velchev, stressing she has been part of his team and initiator of some of these reforms.

The third nominee is the Chief of the Specialized Anti-mafia Prosecutor's Office of Appeals, Borislav Sarafov. He has always worked as prosecutor, including in some high-profile organized crime cases, such as the ones against Zlatomir Ivanov AKA The Barret, "The Killers," and the "Galevi Brothers." Close to one year ago, he was trusted with establishing the new Bulgarian specialized Appellate Prosecutor's Office.

In recent interviews, Sarafov voiced belief he had real chances to win, adding his biography was crystal clean, and vowing to not slam the office of the prosecutor since this has always been his workplace.

The battle is expected to be fierce because 7 members of Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council, VSS, have already pledged to cast a vote for Tsatsarov, and 5 each for Toneva and Sarafov. 7 votes remain unclear, while a candidate needs a total of 17 votes to win, meaning that the top bidder will, most likely, be designated at runoff.

Tsatsarov, backed by Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, wants the order of the vote to be determined by random draw, instead of alphabetical order or the order of the nominations.

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