BRATISLAVA, April 20, (WEBNOVINY) – The constitutional rights of former General Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka were violated in two rounds of a secret ballot of the new prosecutor general by parliamentary deputies. This is the ruling of the Constitutional Court’s panel led by Peter Brnak. The court has, however not ordered a new election, but returned the issue to Parliament for further procedure.
Former General Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka, who ran for re-election at the end of last year, lodged a complaint at the Constitutional Court regarding results of the previous two rounds of election alleging that his constitutional rights were violated by the procedure of parliamentary deputies in the vote. He also demanded declaring the vote invalid and announcing a new secret ballot.
The court called more than 22 deputies to testify at the hearing held April 14. Most of the deputies used their right of immunity and refused to testify. Only opposition deputies supported Trnka’s case, whereas several of them had been scrutators to oversee the course of the vote. They confirmed that several deputies from the ruling coalition checked each others‘ election ballots and whom they supported, photographed their ballots or took them outside the assembly room.
Attorney Marek Benedik, who represents Trnka claims that the deputies clearly violated the principles of a secret ballot. Pavol Hrusovsky (head of KDH deputy faction) represented the parliament. He claims that taking photos of election ballots is not a reason to contest the principle of a secrete vote, while the parliament secured all conditions for the vote in line with the law. Hrusovsky claims that individual acts of deputies in this case cannot be considered unlawful.
Since parliament failed to elect a new prosecutor general in December, the country has been without one since Dobroslav Trnka’s term ended in February 2011. After several failed attempts to elect the new chief prosecutor in a secret ballot, the ruling coalition voted to approve the public vote to elect a new prosecutor general in parliament in early April.
SITA