After almost a year, the justices of the Constitutional Court have decided that they will consider a complaint filed by general prosecutor-elect Jozef Čentéš, the Sme daily reported. Čentéš is objecting to President Ivan Gašparovič failure to formally appoint him to the post of general prosecutor, despite his selection by MPs in a parliamentary vote which the court has already ruled was constitutional.
The court’s spokesperson Anna Pančurová said that the decision was made on Wednesday, September 12, the TASR newswire reported.
In a vote held on June 17, 2011, Čentéš was elected by MPs to be Slovakia's general prosecutor. His rival, the former general prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka, contested the vote with the Constitutional Court, and President Ivan Gašparovič used this appeal as a reason for refusing to appoint Čentéš. When Trnka's appeal was rejected last month, Gašparovič said he was waiting for the court to rule on the objection filed by Čentéš – despite the fact that Čentéš' case does not concern the legitimacy of his election, merely the president's failure to appoint him. As well as Trnka and Čentéš, a group of MPs also filed a motion asking the court to require Gašparovič to appoint the candidate they elected.
Gašparovič has said that the Constitutional Court should rule on all motions filed in the case before he will act.
Sources: Sme, TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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