Future parliamentary votes for general prosecutor, Constitutional Court judges and chairs and vice-chairs of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) are proposed to be changed from secret ballots to recorded ballots according to legislation submitted to the Slovak parliament by representatives of the four coalition partners on January 17, the TASR newswire reported.
For the position of General Prosecutor, voting on proposals to strip the elected person of his or her post will also become recorded, TASR wrote. The proposal is slated to be discussed in February with a parliamentary vote expected in March or April.
The secret ballots laid down in the Constitution, i.e. elections and proposals on dismissing parliamentary chairs and vice-chairs and heads of the parliamentary committees will remain secret. The proposal also introduces an option whereby parliament can decide to hold secret ballots in place of what would be recorded votes.
The coalition parties decided to change the voting procedure for the General Prosecutor’s position into a recorded ballot after no candidate was elected in several election attempts. In the latest attempt several coalition MPs failed to vote for joint coalition nominee, Jozef Čentéš, and instead backed the candidate of the opposition, Dobroslav Trnka.
Robert Fico, the head of Smer party, announced an initiative to summon an extraordinary parliamentary session in January to focus on the coalition's aim to change the rules. Smer plans to nominate both Trnka and Čentéš, with Fico insisting that secret balloting should be maintained.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
