BRATISLAVA, June 1 (SITA) — Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik (SaS) has announced a new election of prosecutor general. MPs have until June 10 to submit candidates for the post, which has been vacant since February 2, when the term in office of Dobroslav Trnka expired. Sulik told journalists on Tuesday that he is not trying to outrun the Constitutional Court with this decision, as if that was the case, the prosecutor general election could have been held already on Tuesday this week.
Sulik underscored that his SaS party has promised a new political culture and therefore he decided to allow almost ten days for submitting candidacies. Within this period the Constitutional Court will have enough time, Sulik says, to issue a preliminary injunction that would stop the public prosecutor general election, as the acting Prosecutor General Ladislav Tichy demands in his motion. “If the Constitutional Court issues the preliminary injunction, we will take its stance into consideration,” said Sulik. According to him, there is still a possibility to hold also a secret ballot if at least 15 MPs will ask for it. However the coalition has approved an amendment to the law on parliamentary rules of procedure according to which the prosecutor general election will be public.
Sulik said that nothing has changed regarding the position to candidates and Jozef Centes, a nominee of the SaS remains the coalition’s candidate for the post. Sulik thinks that the new prosecutor general can be elected at the regular June session of parliament or he will convene a new session with the prosecutor general election on its agenda.
Tichy has contested the public election of prosecutor general in his motion to the Constitutional Court. He also asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the public vote on the new prosecutor general in parliament until the Constitutional Court decides on the matter itself.
In his motion, Tichy has contested several amended stipulations of the law on the parliamentary rules of procedure governing the public election of prosecutor general and top representatives of some other bodies and institutions. In his legal opinion, they are not in compliance with the Constitution, which the Constitutional Court should confirm.
Tichy insists that changing the secret ballot to a public vote because the secret election does not enable political control over MPs voting is not a legitimate reason for a change. He underscored that rules should not be changed closely before a vote.
On May 17, the ruling coalition definitely adopted an amendment to the parliamentary rules of procedure which would allow a public vote in the next election of the prosecutor general. On the same day, the last secret ballot took place: the only candidate, ex-prosecutor general Dobroslav Trnka, nominated by the opposition, was not reelected. At the previous secret ballot to elect the prosecutor general in December, Trnka whose term in office ended in February was a mere one vote short of being reelected to the post. The coalition feared that Trnka might be reelected and thus its MPs took photos of their ballots and showed them to each other to prove they did not vote for Trnka but for the ruling coalition’s candidate Jozef Centes. The Constitutional Court however ruled that such behavior thwarted the secret ballot and infringed rights of one of the candidates, Dobroslav Trnka, and ordered to repeat the secret ballot. The coalition therefore proposed to change the secret vote to a public election.
SITA