A representative of the Smer opposition party said a complaint will be filed with the Constitutional Court concerning the vote on June 17 for a new general prosecutor because “the coalition used the election to break the neck of democracy”, former Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák said on TV Markíza's political show 'Na telo' on Sunday, the TASR newswire reported.
Kaliňák said what transpired in parliament in the vote had never been seen before in the 21 years since the Velvet Revolution.
"The coalition standing up against the decision of the Constitutional Court calls for the jangling of keys” [a form of public protest used by those who took part in the Velvet Revolution in 1989 - ed. note], he said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
He added that Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulík should have waited at least until the Constitutional Court's ruling on the matter was published in the statute book. On June 15, the Constitutional Court suspended the validity of the Rules of Procedure, an amendment which had changed the previously-used public vote into open, recorded one.
Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) also appeared on the show and said that the vote had been in order and that it was now up to President Ivan Gašparovič to appoint Jozef Čentéš as the new general prosecutor. Gašparovič indicated that he would not do so before the Constitutional Court makes a final decision on whether elections for a general prosecutor are to public or secret.
Žitňanská said that she regretted that it took the coalition so long to elect its candidate and that the General Prosecutor's Office was without a head for such a long time. To read more about the GP vote, please read Čentéš elected as prosecutor general
, Sulík: It's the president's duty to appoint Čentéš as prosecutor general and Fico calls election of prosecutor general a black day in Slovakia's history .
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
