Burgas District Court judge Krasimira Doneva is running for a seat on the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). She says her main goal is to restore trust in the judiciary, according to her statement of motives.

The judges' members of the new SJC are being elected today at a general assembly of judges.

Doneva says trust comes from transparent personnel decisions, the same rules for everyone and real accountability for magistrates. She says she is standing because of her many years of professional experience, which she believes should serve the judiciary.

She wants to represent judges independently, with no ties or promises made in advance. The career progress she would defend, she says, must rest on knowledge, professional skill and personal effort.

For competitions, she proposes that the criteria be set in advance and be measurable, with a clear weight for each one. Checks should cover a representative sample of the cases heard, and workload must always be taken into account. Competition panels, she says, must explain both their scores and how they compared candidates.

On promotions, Doneva wants more weight given to the quality of rulings and to real results in delivering justice. She says performance appraisals should become a real tool for professional growth.

She proposes that regional courts hold no outside competitions to hire new judges. Vacancies there, she says, should go to magistrates who have proved themselves, through promotion or transfer.

The council must have clear rules that protect judges from unlawful pressure, Doneva says. She says disciplinary practice must be consistent and predictable, with no double standards.

She also proposes a way to remove a court's administrative head: the general assembly of judges in that court would start the process and make the decision.