BRATISLAVA, December 6, (WEBNOVINY) — The four-party center-right ruling coalition in Slovakia agreed to change rules and elect the prosecutor general in parliament by a public vote instead of a secret ballot. The second round of the election will be secret, but the coalition MPs will block electing the new chief prosecutor. “This is an agreement of the four coalition parties,” the Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik said. The coalition parties will subsequently change the rules of procedure of the Parliament, so that the third election of the Prosecutor General will be by a public vote. According to Sulik, the new election could be delayed until after February 1, 2011, when the term of incumbent Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka ends.
The Coalition Council refused speculations on the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle in case that the ruling coalition’s candidate for prosecutor general was not elected. “We reject any speculations of this kind,” said SDKU-DS chairman Mikulas Dzurinda. “We support Iveta Radicova’s Cabinet. No other alternative is acceptable for us, for our deputies,” MOST-HID chairman Bela Bugar added. KDH chairman Jan Figel has also expressed his support to the Cabinet and to the Prime Minister. “The election of the prosecutor general is not only a test of confidence, but also of the state of the coalition,” Figel said, adding, that Jozef Centes remains the joint candidate for prosecutor general. “We have joined this government agreeing that it will have this composition and that its Prime Minister will be Iveta Radicova. This is essential for us,” SaS chairman Richard Sulik said. Both SaS and MOST-HID leaders confirmed that if Dobroslav Trnka was elected and the Prime Minister would resign, their parties would leave the coalition.
The coalition was unable to elect the Prosecutor General three times already. Two rounds of the first election and the first one of the second ballot were unsuccessful. In the last election on Thursday last week, Dobroslav Trnka won one more vote than the coalition nominee Jozef Centes. Some ruling coalition MPs supported Trnka as well.
The coalition wants to change the election of all public officials, secrecy of election of which is not based on the Constitution. The election of the Prosecutor General, head of the Supreme Audit Office, the Ombudsman, candidates for judges of the Supreme Court or the director of the Nation’s Memory Institute would be public. The Speaker of Parliament and Deputy Speakers of the Parliament and heads of the Parliamentary Committees would still be elected in a secret ballot.
SITA