Prosecutors across Bulgaria choose four members of the ninth Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) from the professional quota on Saturday, 24 October. There are 25 candidates for the four seats in the prosecutors' college, and four of them are from the Burgas judicial district.

One is Yovita Grigorova, deputy appellate prosecutor in Burgas. Nearly 80 prosecutors from the Burgas, Sliven and Yambol judicial districts support her candidacy.

In all, 1,570 prosecutors can vote. Voting is voluntary and ballots are on paper only. Each voter can mark up to four candidates.

The process began on 17 October with a first general meeting of prosecutors. The agenda included choosing a chair for the meeting, picking members of the election commission and the polling sections, and setting the time for each candidate. All 25 candidates were to be heard in alphabetical order, each presenting their plans and answering questions. Many hold senior posts, and some names will be familiar from recent years.

Topics expected at the hearing included less paperwork, a predictable career path, and protecting judges and prosecutors from political and corporate pressure. The meeting is streamed live on the SJC website.

There are 29 polling sections: one in each regional centre and three in Sofia. In the capital, people vote at the Palace of Justice, at the Sofia District Court building on Skobelev Boulevard and at the former Specialised Criminal Court building on Cherkovna Street. At the last address, the voters are prosecutors from the Sofia appellate prosecutor's office, the Sofia regional prosecutor's office and the district prosecutor's offices in Samokov, Elin Pelin, Botevgrad and Kostinbrod.

For the first time, the vote is filmed and shown live on the SJC website, to keep it open and clear to the public. Every section has video cameras, which record the opening of the ballot box and the count. Observers who will watch the count have already been registered.

When voting ends, the sections count the ballots and draw up records. By 21:00 each one sends a scanned copy of its record to the election commission. By 23:00 the commission chair announces the results and the names of those elected. If there is a run-off, voting continues on 25 October.

Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) Burgas gave the candidates a chance to present their plans and priorities, so that the vote is open and fully visible to the public.

"The debate on judicial reform must start with a loud voice from the members of the Supreme Judicial Council," Grigorova told BNR. "My view is that this debate is not active enough," she added. She has more than 30 years of service in Bulgaria's prosecution service, and she says those years were spent in constant judicial reforms that are still not finished.

Grigorova said she is running because the built-up problems with staffing and administrative capacity must be solved fast, and the way competitions are held must change. The SJC cannot propose laws, but she said the justice minister, as a representative of the executive, is the channel through which the voice of rank-and-file magistrates should travel, via their representatives in the SJC.

She believes the workload in the courts and prosecution offices depends on the crime situation in each area. District prosecutor's offices are the first instance, while regional ones act as both first instance and appeal. The Burgas appellate region has its own features, she said, because it has every type of border, including an external border and an external sea border, as well as borders with EU and non-EU countries. Grigorova said this variety creates a varied and fast-changing crime situation.

On choosing a prosecutor general, she says the most important thing is that the process is open. Vanya Stefanova is acting prosecutor general for six months. According to Grigorova, Stefanova called at the public debate, which was part of the hearings of candidates for the prosecutors' college, for this to be the last election in this format, run through the SJC's prosecutors' college.