BRATISLAVA, May 17, (WEBNOVINY) — Dobroslav Trnka was not reelected in the repeated secret ballot to the post of prosecutor general on Tuesday. According to information available to SITA news agency, seventy deputies voted for him, seventeen against him, 29 refrained from voting and 34 votes were invalid.
The vote was crucial for Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS), who warned she would resign should Dobroslav Trnka be reelected.
At the previous secret ballot to elect the prosecutor general in December, Dobroslav 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. Meanwhile the coalition voted to pass a bill to change the parliamentary standing order enabling a public vote on the new prosecutor general. The president vetoed the bill, but the parliament broke the president’s veto shortly before the Tuesday’s secret ballot.
The parliamentary session will continue Wednesday morning.
SITA