The Committee on Direct Participation of Citizens, Citizens’ Complaints and Interaction with Civil Society will hold a hearing of the candidates for Ombudsman on 10 April 2025.

The deadline for questions submitted by citizens, organisations, media and institutions via the Committee's email is three days before the hearing date. At the hearing, the candidates will be asked to present their concepts for the job and answer questions put to them.

The Committee has received six nominations for the position of Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria. These are Anton Stankov, nominated by the "Association Bulgarian School of Politics Dimitry Panitza", Velislava Delcheva, nominated by MPs from GERB-UDF, Dzhema Grozdanova, nominated by the National Patients' Organization. Dimitar Yotov was nominated by the Bulgarian National Association "Active Consumers", Maria Mateva was nominated by the Bulgarian Red Cross and former ombudsman Maya Manolova was nominated by 23 branch and civil organizations.

The procedural rules for the election of an ombudsman were adopted by the National Assembly on 13 February, with a maximum period of 28 days for nominations to allow for a wider range of candidates. Nominations for ombudsman were open to MPs, parliamentary groups and non-profit public benefit entities.

Following a review by the Committee on Direct Participation of Citizens, Citizens’ Complaints and Interaction with Civil Society, it was found that the documents of all six candidates for the post of national public defender met the requirements set out in the Rules of Procedure for the nomination, submission, public disclosure and hearing of candidates and the Ombudsman Act.

The Committee on Direct Participation of Citizens, Citizens’ Complaints and Interaction with Civil Society received 36 letters of support for the ombudsman candidates, which are published on the National Assembly website under Electoral Procedures.

On 3 April 2025, the deadline for the preliminary verification of State Security affiliation expires.

The election of the National Ombudsman will be held in plenary within 7 days after the submission of the Committee's hearing report.