BRATISLAVA, December 2, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak Parliament was again unable to elect the new prosecutor general on Thursday. The candidate nominated by the opposition deputy Mojmir Mamojka, incumbent Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka, received 74 votes in a secret ballot, which means that he also won votes of three coalition MPs. Ruling coalition’s candidate Jozef Centes was supported by 73 deputies. Coalition deputies were checking on each other and showed each other their ballot papers during the vote. A valid election of the prosecutor general requires absolute majority of present deputies, which was 75 votes from the 149 deputies present.
The Coalition Council will deal with the emerged situation. The seven-year term in office of Dobroslav Trnka ends in February of next year.
In reaction to the vote, Deputy Chairwoman of Christian Democrats (KDH) Jana Zitnanska said she was “frustrated and disgusted”. Even though it was the SDKU-DS deputy Stanislav Janis who proposed Dobroslav Trnka for the post of Prosecutor General prior the first vote, his colleague from SDKU-DS Miroslav Beblavy does not think that members of this party voted for Trnka. “I am hundred-percent sure that it were not deputies of SDKU-DS, I am 99-percent sure,” he stated.
The leader of MOST-HID Bela Bugar also rules out that it was deputies of his party voting for the opposition candidate Trnka, as there is double control mechanism within MOST-HID. He would not comment on the further moves. “I would rather not tell you my opinion, because you would have to bleep it out. Ask our coalition partners,” he told SITA news agency.
Leader of the strongest opposition party SMER-SD Robert Fico described the behavior of the coalition deputies during voting on the prosecutor general as “mockery of democracy”. Deputies of SaS were, similarly to the previous vote, taking photos of their ballots along with their IDs and several deputies of other coalition parties were casting their ballots in “pairs”.
According to Juraj Droba, SaS deputy, who took a photo of his ballot, it is a matter of principle. In his opinion, voters of SaS have the right to know for whom voted. “I know that several colleagues of mine also decided to document their vote,” he said, adding that he will show the photo on his mobile if asked, but he will not publish it.
SITA