MPs to elect candidates for Constitutional Court judge again

One of the most anticipated items on the list for the upcoming parliamentary session, starting on March 26, is the election of the candidates for Constitutional Court judge.

The vote is scheduled for the evening of April 3, the TASR newswire reported.

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The previous election to replace the nine judges, whose tenure ended in February, was not successful and resulted in the fact that only four of 13 judges are currently sitting.

The ruling parties are expected to talk about the election at the coalition council.

New faces

MPs should elect a shortlist of 18 candidates from which the president should appoint nine. Altogether 29 candidates have enrolled for the new election. Several people have dropped out of the running this time around, including Robert Fico, Monika Jankovská and Peter Kresák.

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On the other hand, there are five new candidates, namely attorney Katarína Čechová, judge of the Bratislava Regional Court Vlastimil Pavlikovský, lawyer Stanislav Irsák, Rastislav Kaššák who teaches at the Pan-European University in Bratislava, and attorney Pavol Boroň.

The parliamentary constitutional and legal affairs committee recommended all the candidates for election, even though three did not attend the hearings which took place on March 21 and 22, TASR wrote.

Moreover, unlike the previous election, it is possible that parliament will elect the candidates in a secret ballot.