Bulgaria’s former Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov will lead the newly formed Yes Bulgaria party as it prepares to compete in the upcoming general election on an anti-corruption platform. 

Bulgaria has so far struggled to tackle corruption effectively, falling behind neighbouring Romania on measures such as Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Despite pushing from the European Commission and efforts by figures such as Ivanov, who resigned as planned judicial reforms were watered down by the parliament, progress has been patchy. 

The founding assembly of the new anti-corruption party was held on January 7, according to the party’s website. The project was initiated by Ivanov, who was elected as the party’s first chairman with only one abstention. The next step is court registration. 

The new party has three goals – to guarantee the rule of law and effective and accessible justice; to accelerate tangibly the rates of the country’s development; and to begin purposeful efforts to tackle systemic poverty and raise living standards.

On January 7, Ivanov said that Yes Bulgaria already has 4,500 registered members and over 500 donors who have raised over BGN90,000 (€46,000). He pointed out that the attendance at the founding assembly exceeded 1,200 people, which compares with a legal requirement of 500 and their plans for 800.

Ivanov was a member of the government led by outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borissov but he resigned in December 2015 after the parliament adopted in its second reading a significantly revised version of constitutional amendments originally intended to provide the basis for a comprehensive judiciary reform.

The core of the conflict was an amendment envisaging a division of Bulgaria’s Supreme Judicial Council into two colleges – one of judges and one of prosecutors – supported by both the European Commission and the Council of Europe's Venice Commission.

However, between the two readings, leftist Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV), which then had one cabinet member, proposed a revision, which reduced the number of the members in the 11-person prosecutors’ college to be elected by parliament from six to five. Of the remaining six members, four were to be elected by the prosecutors, one by the investigators, and the 11th member is the prosecutor general. 

This meant that the prosecutor general would control a majority in the college, because both the prosecutors and the investigators are subordinated to him or her, observers commented. Ivanov opted to resign after the amendments were approved by the parliament. 

His new party plans to participate in the early general elections that will take place in late March or in April. The need for a snap vote arose after the current government resigned in November and the last attempt at forming a new regular government within the current parliament failed on December 20.

However, Yes Bulgaria is not expected to gain significant traction among voters. An opinion poll conducted by Gallup International on December 19-21 revealed that the chances of Ivanov’s project were modest.

The poll found that the potential of Ivanov’s project was about 1%, below the potential of the project launched by Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) leader Radan Kanev (1.5%). A possible new party led by showman Slavi Trifonov had a significantly higher potential of 12% as of the date of the study. However, Gallup warned that it is too early to draw conclusions.