A new term has entered the lexicon of Bulgaria’s political debate after Gergana Passi, European Affairs Minister, said on June 18 that the "Galevisation of Bulgaria’s image would find its way into the upcoming European Commission interim report".

The report, which will examine the state of Bulgaria’s judiciary and law enforcement, is expected to come out after the July 5 elections in Bulgaria. Yet Passi’s words were the first serious indicator of how the outside world sees the new feature in Bulgarian politics, that of majority candidates.

Following the introduction of the new rule that 31 out of 240 Parliamentary seats can be elected by a majority vote, controversial businessman Plamen Galev and his partner, Angel Hristov, decided to run for Parliament. This afforded them immunity from prosecution during the election campaign. The court was forced to release them from Sofia central prison, where they had been since December 2008, accused of spearheading a criminal group in their home town of Doupnitsa.

Legally, there was nothing wrong with the court’s ruling because both individuals met all the conditions to run for Parliament. They had no previous convictions and all their registration papers were in order.

From a moral point of view, however, Bulgarian and foreign media raised concerns that two individuals, whose public image is far from unblemished, had exploited a loophole that gives even criminal defendants - on the basis that they are innocent until proven guilty - the right to run for public office.

The rule about granting prospective MPs immunity from prosecution was introduced exactly with the intention of protecting them from an abuse of power. If such a rule were not in place then any parliamentary candidate could be accused of any offence in order to bar them from an election. By the time charges were dropped, the election campaign could have run its course.

When working on this rule, however, legislators failed to foresee the "Galevi scenario" whereby a loyal crowd of supporters in their home town, combined with a low turnout, could send them to Parliament. At first dismissed lightly, the Galevi ‘threat’ has now been taken seriously by Passi and then by President Georgi Purvanov, the main advocate of Bulgaria having MPs elected by a majority vote.

On June 22, Purvanov criticised parties for minsinterpreting his idea about majority candidates and even distanced himself from the measure by saying that he was not the first person to propose it. Purvanov said that those facing criminal charges choosing to run for Parliament were "a provocation to the democratic principles of the state and society".

Without specifically mentioning Galev and Hristov, Purvanov said that there had to be some way to prevent such individuals from running for Parliament. Unfortunately, he did not say how this could happen and if such a (new) rule would somehow contravene the "innocent until proven guilty" key judicial cornerstone. He said that if such people made it to Parliament, they would "harm the image of Bulgaria and our perception of democracy".      

The Galev scenario is not totally without precedent, however. In 2005, Vladimir Kouzov was elected as  MP for ultra-nationalist Ataka party despite being investigated for paedophilia. When he was elected to Parliament the investigation was put on hold, as is now the case with Galev. It was only restarted after Parliament stripped Kouzov of his immunity.

In 2009, he got a three-year suspended sentence and was expelled from Parliament, so proving that legal mechanisms do exist to convict a person even if he has immunity provided prosecutors have evidence to prove a crime.

Purvanov raised further concerns that not that many majority candidates were supported by initiative committees (requiring a minimum seven supporters) as is the case with Plamen Galev.

A total of 4652 candidates have registered for the elections. Of this number, 357 are running as majority candidates. Significantly, a great number of these candidates are standing as both proportional and majority candidates.

All the party leaders, for example, are running as both majority and proportional candidates so that they can - firstly - guarantee their seat in Parliament and - secondly - pull one more person from the election ticket in. Purvanov fears that parties have started solving their internal problems by sending one candidate to stand as a majority one and another as a proportional one, so undermining the idea of having more non-partisan candidates.

Ironically, one of the few non-partisan candidates happens to be Plamen Galev.