Following all the twists and turns in the parliamentary vote on the Attorney General post, current attorney general Dobroslav Trnka has thrown another spanner in the works.
At a press conference today Trnka announced his decision to turn to the Constitutional Court with a petition to declare last Thursday’s vote as being in contradiction to the Constitution and parliamentary rules. “I personally, as Dobroslav Trnka (and not as Attorney General), will turn to the Constitutional Court to request its interpretation of certain rules concerning the secret vote” he announced.
Trnka noted that he saw nothing illegal about how the vote transpired yesterday, though, saying there was no reason for him to speculate about it. The vote was blocked by coalition MPs by collecting ballot papers but by not casting them, meaning Trnka could not get the required majority of present MPs.
Trnka says he doesn’t know why the coalition is so strongly against him, and that he has nothing to be ashamed of, especially where his work is concerned. “I haven’t done anything terrible” he exclaimed, while pointing to his good results. He has also now maybe decided not to re-run for the post at all, in the light of all the trouble it has caused.
On the subject of alleged bribery of coalition MPs to vote for him, he said any MP who knows of anything would have the chance to provide evidence to the Attorney General’s office or the police so that the affair could be cleared up.
Now a debate is going on over whether the vote should be secret or public, but as Trnka himself pointed out, certain legal principles in this respect date back some two thousand years to the time of Roman law.