President Zuzana Čaputová now has a full slate of candidates to choose the judges for the vacant seats at the Constitutional Court from.
In a public vote, the parliament ended the long series of votes and elected the four missing candidates on September 25. The names that were added to the list that now features 18 candidates for the nine vacant positions are Ladislav Duditš, Libor Duľa, Peter Melicher and Peter Straka.
The ruling coalition has agreed to vote for these candidates in advance.
President Zuzana Čaputová said that she would only appoint the missing judges when the parliament provides two candidates for each empty seat, as required by the Constitution. Following the vote, her spokesperson Martin Strižinec told the TASR newswire that she will appoint the new judges as soon as possible after her return from New York, where she attended the UN General Assembly.
Public vote
The junior coalition parties Most-Híd and Slovak National Party (SNS) insisted on a public vote this time around. Smer finally gave in, even though they pushed for a secret vote, the Sme daily wrote.
Related articleParliament to vote on Constitutional Court candidates again in September Read more The parliament has failed to elect the full number of candidates in the previous four elections (two rounds each), after nine of the 13 chairs at the court became vacant in February. They have gradually agreed on 14 candidates.
Before the end of his term, former President Andrej Kiska selected three of them to make sure the plenum of the court was functioning and able to elect its own president. One of the new arrivals, Ivan Fiačan, then became the Constitutional Court president.
Fiačan made a rare appearance in the parliament last week and called on the MPs to fulfill their duty and elect enough candidates for the president to select from.
15 candidates for Čaputová
President Čaputová will appoint six new Constitutional Court judges out of the 15 candidates listed below to join the seven judges already sitting at the Constitutional Court:
- Pavol Boroň,
- Ladislav Duditš,
- Libor Duľa,
- Rastislav Kaššák,
- Miloš Maďar,
- Pavol Malich,
- Peter Melicher,
- Patrik Palša,
- Edita Pfundtner,
- Radoslav Procházka,
- Marek Tomašovič,
- Michal Truban,
- Peter Straka,
- Daniela Švecová,
- Martin Vernarský,
- Ivan Fiačan - already appointed by Kiska,
- Peter Molnár - already appointed by Kiska,
- Ľuboš Szigeti - already appointed by Kiska.
25. Sep 2019 at 21:51 | Compiled by Spectator staff
