Gašparovič appoints 11 judges, others doubtful

OUTGOING President Ivan Gašparovič appointed 11 judges on June 12, three days before his second term in office ends and he is replaced by the president-elect Andrej Kiska.

OUTGOING President Ivan Gašparovič appointed 11 judges on June 12, three days before his second term in office ends and he is replaced by the president-elect Andrej Kiska.

No more appointments are expected to be made by Gašparovič.

It is especially significant whether or not Gašparovič will appoint three new Constitutional Court judges by the time his term ends on the noon of June 15, the TASR newswire noted.

"It's not on his schedule,” presidential spokesman Marek Trubač said as quoted by TASR. “The life of a Slovak politician is unpredictable, however, so anything may be added to the schedule. The president retains his powers until Sunday noon, and he has the power to appoint Constitutional Court judges."

The president still has work to do until Sunday, as he needs to decide on whether or not to sign several bills into law, Trubač noted. A constitutional amendment that introduces a reform of the judiciary and a definition of marriage in the Constitution is among them.

Gasparovic himself previously said that the odds that he'll appoint three new Constitutional Court judges before handing over the office to Andrej Kiska are fifty-fifty. He also gave assurances that he'll "certainly make the right decision", TASR quoted.

Parliament has elected six candidates for Constitutional Court judges, as the president can select three to replace outgoing judges Ján Luby, Juraj Horváth and Ján Auxt. Their term in office expires on July 4. Nine of the 12 Constitutional Court judges are in place for their 12-year stints on the bench.

Five candidates were elected in a secret ballot in Parliament in April: Supreme Court judge Jana Baricová (nominated by Supreme Court chairman Štefan Harabin), Nitra Regional Court judge Ján Bernát (nominated by General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár), notary and university teacher Miroslav Ďuriš (nominated by head of the Chamber of Notaries Karol Kovács), Bratislava I District Court chair Eva Fulčová (nominated by Kovács as well as dean of Comenius University's law school Pavol Kubíček) and Košice Regional Court chair Imrich Volkai (a nominee of dean of the Košice-based Faculty of Law of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University Gabriela Dobrovičová). Košice Regional Court Senate chairman Juraj Sopoliga became the sixth candidate following a vote in Parliament in mid-May.

Source: TASR

Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.

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