THE OPPOSITION parties are not planning to submit a new candidate for the post of Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) head, the TASR newswire reported on November 3.
"The opposition has already submitted its candidate - Maroš Žilinka - and we have no reason to change that,” Most-Híd Chairman Béla Bugár told TASR. “We refuse to play the [governing] Smer party's games in that they want to determine which opposition candidate suits them.”
Representatives of the fledgling New-Majority-Agreement (NOVA) party, who act as independents in parliament, echoed Bugár’s view in their refusal to join "Smer's undignified game".
The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) said in a statement that it is not planning to come up with a new candidate, because "nothing's changed on the issue".
Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Chairman Richard Sulík noted that his party had a candidate - Milan Laurencik - already, and that it will submit his candidacy once "the opposition parties realise that agreements are there to be adhered to", TASR reported.
The other opposition parties initially agreed that the post should belong to SaS, but after several failed attempts to elect SaS candidates to the post, the Christian Democrats (KDH), SDKÚ and Most-Híd decided to put forward their own candidate.
The parties spoke after Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paška (Smer) said that he'll announce a new parliamentary election of the NKÚ chief as soon as the opposition parties field a candidate for the post.
The opposition parties have submitted several candidates in the past but none have garnered enough votes in parliament to be elected. The last such attempt fell flat back on May 28 when the opposition withdrew the candidacy of Maroš Žilinka. This was because Smer required the vote to be secret.
Meanwhile, the NKÚ is still headed by Ján Jasovský, a nominee Vladimír Mečiar’s near extinct Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). Jasovský has been in the post for more than 18 months since the official end of his tenure.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
