BRATISLAVA, January 16, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak Parliament on Wednesday could not approve the program for its extraordinary 13th session and thus a discussion about the reasons why President Ivan Gasparovic refuses to appoint elected candidate Jozef Centes to the post of Prosecutor General did not take place, as the parliamentary session could not start. MPs of the ruling party SMER-SD, who have an absolute majority in parliament voted against the program of the session with their 74 MPs present in 150-member parliament. The program was only supported by 59 opposition MPs. The opposition does not have enough votes to approve the program without support of SMER-SD members.
All opposition parties asked for this session to be convened. They wanted parliament to pass a resolution whereby it expresses serious concern that without legal grounds the president has refused to appoint Jozef Centes, whom parliament duly elected a candidate for Prosecutor General.
Opposition MPs wanted to know the reasons why the president refused to appoint Centes. According to the Christian Democrats faction chief Pavol Hrusovsky, MPs have the right to know whether there are legal reasons based on which President Gasparovic does not have to appoint a duly elected candidate for Prosecutor General. „We want him to tell us other reasons than the ones he has stated in his written opinion, because we do not consider those to be such that could lead to non-appointment of the Prosecutor General,“ said Hrusovsky.
President Ivan Gasparovic President announced parliament on January 2 that he will not appoint the elected candidate to the post of Prosecutor General. Parliament elected Centes a candidate for the post on June 17, 2011. According to a Constitutional Court decision based on a parliamentary motion, the president is obliged to appoint the parliament-elected Prosecutor General within an appropriate period or to inform the lawmaking body of serious and not willful reasons for not appointing him.
SITA