Bulgaria’s former President Georgi Parvanov suggested on Wednesday that the Constitution doesn’t bar him from running again in presidential elections.

“We think that there is an interptetation of the constitution which allows a person, who had served two terms of office as President and had spent time on the reserve bench afterwards, to run again,” Parvanov told reporters in Parliament on Wednesday.

However, Parvanov stopped short of saying explicitly that he would take part in the forthcoming presidential race. Bulgaria is scheduled to hold presidential elections in the autumn.  

Parvanov, currently leader of left-wing Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) party, served two consecutive terms of office from 2002 to 2012.

Bulgaria’s Constitution reads: “The President and the Vice President shall be limited to a single re-election to the same office.”

The use of a definite article leaves the text open to interpretation that the restriction applies to the incumbent head of state only, thus allowing a former president to seek a third term of office after a pause, according to some experts in constitutional law. Others disagree, saying that a president shall be limited strictly to two terms of office – either one immediately after the other, or with a hiatus between them.

Bulgaria’s incumbent President Rosen Plevneliev said last week that he wouldn’t seek a second term of office in this year’s elections, citing personal reasons.

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