BRATISLAVA, July 14, (WEBNOVINY) — Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik did not succeed with the appeal of 76 MPs requesting the appointment of Jozef Centes to the post of Prosecutor General at his visit of President Ivan Gasparovic on Thursday. “We hold the position that it is Mr. President’s obligation to appoint the prosecutor general without unnecessary delay,” said Sulik at a press conference after the meeting was over. After the Constitutional Court withdrew its preliminary injunction regarding the legislation on electing the Prosecutor General, these deputies see no reason for why Centes should not be installed into office.
However, the head of state has a diametrically different opinion. According to Gasparovic, the preliminary injunction was only to prevent electing a candidate before the Constitutional Court would assess some provisions relating to the election. In spite of this fact, a candidate for prosecutor general was elected, so, the president continues, the court saw no meaning in the preliminary injunction being kept valid. He also underlined that the court has yet to decide on the motion filed by acting Prosecutor General Ladislav Tichy – and it will only deal with the issue in September. “I’ll wait for the decision of the Constitutional Court in September, I think it has logic,” Gasparovic said. He also added that the court could decide that the election was not in accordance with the Constitution and it would become necessary to resolve what to do if a candidate elected in this manner would already be appointed as well as what would be the reasons for withdrawing him and whether the Parliament would elect a new one. The president would therefore prefer waiting, as, according to him, nothing special is going on, the General Prosecution works as it is headed by an acting chief.
On the other hand, Sulik thinks it is not good if the General Prosecution is headed by someone lacking a constitutional mandate, not elected by parliament and not appointed by the president. Both Gasparovic and Sulik agreed that appointing the prosecutor general should not be postponed without serious reasons, yet the president thinks that this time, there is a reason.
In the early 1990s, Gasparovic himself was Prosecutor General of federal Czechoslovakia. He was later sacked from his office by then-President Vaclav Havel for inactivity.
SITA