AS OF today, Štefan Harabin no longer heads the Supreme Court and the Judicial Council. His five-year term expired on June 22.
Harabin attempted to win re-election to the post, but the Judicial Council failed to elect him and both of his two competitors to the post. The second round of the election will take place on September 16, as Harabin announced last week. It is the last possible day for the election to be held. Harabin, as a failed candidate from the first round, is not allowed to run again. He could, however, run in the third round if the council fails to elect his successor in the second round.
The Judicial Council is currently functioning without a chairman as well as without a deputy chair, after the recently inaugurated President Andrej Kiska recalled Mária Bujňáková from the post. The council is thus presided over by its eldest member, former Constitutional Court judge Ján Klučka, whom Kiska appointed last week. Klučka should now convene an extraordinary session of the council within 30 days, the SITA newswire reported.
The twin post of the Supreme Court president and the Judicial Council chairman will be divided as of September, based on the constitutional amendment recently passed by parliament. The council will thus have to elect its chair separately from the Supreme Court president election, from among its members.
Meanwhile, Harabin took up the post of the head of the penal collegium of the Supreme Court on June 23. He spent his last working day as Supreme Court president on June 20 at the International Legal Forum in St Petersburg, Russia, the SITA newswire reported.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
