l-r: President Andrej Kiska, Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko and PM Robert Fico (source: SITA)
President Andrej Kiska will choose judges for the vacant posts at the Constitutional Court only out of four candidates instead of 10. The parliament failed to provide enough candidates in the third vote already.
While they chose three candidates in the May 21 secret ballot, they added only one candidate in the second round held on May 22.
The president will thus choose out of lawyer Pavol Boroň, prosecutor Marek Tomašovič and Constitutional Court advisor Martin Vernarský (elected on May 21), and lawyer Patrik Palša (who received enough votes on May 22), the Denník N daily wrote
“Honestly, I have ceased to understand what is going on in the parliament when it comes to the election of candidates for the Constitutional Court judge,” said President Andrej Kiska, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The new, fourth election is to be announced by Speaker Andrej Danko (SNS) in the upcoming days.
10 Constitutional Court judges are enough
The president has four candidates to choose from, said Deputy Speaker of Parliament Béla Bugár (Most-Híd) after the May 22 vote.
“Nothing terrible will happen if there are only 10 judges in the Constitutional Court for some time,” Bugár added, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
In the meantime, the president has said that he will not appoint either of the four candidates unless there is a complete list of 18 candidates as required by the Constitution, TASR reported.
“I want to again mention that it is the duty of MPs to elect seven other candidates for the Constitutional Court,” the president added, as quoted by TASR.
Therefore, president-elect Zuzana Čaputová, who is taking the office in mid-June, is expected to appoint the six judges who are still missing at the Constitutional Court.
