30 people want to run for Constitutional Court seats in a repeated vote

Altogether 30 candidates will run for the empty seats in the Constitutional Court in a repeated vote, scheduled for late March. The deadline for submitting the nominations expired on March 5.

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The slates show that there are only five new candidates compared to the January vote. However, the final number is lower since 40 candidates were running in the previous vote. Some people, like Smer chair Robert Fico, State Secretary of the Justice Ministry Monika Jankovská (Smer) and Most-Híd MP Peter Kresák will not run again, the Sme daily reported.

5 new candidates

Lawyer Stanislav Irsák, who is fighting against usurers and non-banking companies, is one of the five newly-recommended candidates for the Constitutional Court. He also appeared on the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities' (OĽaNO) slate for the parliamentary elections in the past, Sme wrote.

Judge Vlastimil Pavlikovský, who works at the Bratislava Regional Court, used to work as the chief of staff at the Justice Ministry when controversial Štefan Harabin was the minister.

Harabin is currently the Supreme Court judge and is running in this year's presidential elections. Dean of the law faculty at Comenius University in Bratislava Eduard Burda proposed Pavlikovský along with another eight names.

"We consider the candidates to be highly educated, with the appropriate capacity to combine innovative and traditional legal opinions," said Burda, as quoted by Sme.

Lawyers Pavol Boroň and Rastislav Kaššák, the latter of whom teaches at the Pan-European University in Bratislava, have been proposed as well.

Public Defender of Rights Mária Patayková nominated lawyer Katarína Čechová, who also helps organise charity events and projects, as reported by Sme.

Secret ballot

"In my opinion, there is a sufficient number of good candidates," said Róbert Madej, chair of the parliamentary constitutional affairs committee, as quoted by Sme. "I will call on MPs to choose the required, that is, the full number of 18 candidates."

The vote is scheduled to take place on March 26. Only the five new candidates for the Constitutional Court judge post will be publicly questioned prior to the election, sometime between March 21 and 23.

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Yet, other candidates, who were heard in January, will be invited to the presentation of the candidates although they are not obliged to come, Madej said, as reported by Sme.

Smer insists that the candidates will be elected in the secret ballot. At the same time, the party does not want President Andrej Kiska to appoint nine new Constitutional Court judges, but instead his successor who will take the office in mid-June, Sme reported. This situation could happen if the parliament fails to elect 18 candidates, Sme reported.

Regardless of the election, Kiska will have to appoint the new president of the Constitutional Court before his term of office ends, Sme wrote.