SLOVAKIA’s Judicial Council did not vote to elect a vice-chair of the country’s Supreme Court at its meeting on April 24 at the request of Igor Burger, a Supreme Court judge who was the only candidate to become vice-chair. The judge made the request because eight new members of the Judicial Council are to be elected in May, the SITA newswire reported.
“I request and propose this point [the vote] be moved to a session of the new Judicial Council so there will be no doubts about the legitimacy of the election,” stated Burger, as quoted by SITA.
SITA wrote that Burger is a long-time friend of Štefan Harabin, the president of both the Supreme Court and the Judicial Council, who told the media that he would have supported Burger.
“Now you see that he is Mr Judge, who doesn’t need any half-sized trust – if he takes a post, he must take it with 100-percent trust,” Harabin said, as quoted by SITA.
The position of vice-chair of the Supreme Court has been vacant since May 30, 2010, when Daniela Švecová’s term expired. She ran again for the post but was not elected.
Another candidate, also not elected, was Judge Peter Paluda, who was known to be a staunch critic of Harabin.
