Radoslav Procházka (source: Marko Erd, Sme)
Parliament again failed to elect enough candidates to fill the empty judicial posts on the Constitutional Court. Although MPs were supposed to elect six candidates in the fourth vote on June 20, they chose only one: lawyer and former chair of the now-defunct Sieť party, Radoslav Procházka.
He gained 74 votes.
The Constitutional Court is currently working with seven of its full complement of 13 judges. President Zuzana Čaputová said earlier this week that she would appoint the new judges only after parliament gives her six names. She already has some candidates left to her by her predecessor, Andrej Kiska.
“Political speculations should be given as the reason why parliament did not fulfil its duty,” said Natália Blahová, MP of the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, as quoted by the SITA newswire, after the vote, blaming the coalition for the failure.
Early elections?
Andrej Danko of the junior coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) also said that he is disappointed by the election outcome.
“I did everything I could to make the Constitutional Court function again,” he said, as quoted by SITA.
He also said that there is the possibility of early elections in October because he feels that PM Peter Pellegrini has different attitudes to those of Smer chairman Robert Fico.
The next election should be public as it has been demonstrated that the secret election repeatedly failed to bring enough candidates, Danko continued.
The next round of the election will take place on June 25.
