It’s back to square one in the parliamentary vote on the Attorney General post as the same two candidates from previous rounds, Dobroslav Trnka (backed by Smer-SD) and Jozef Centes (backed by governing coalition) meet each other again in the first ever public AG vote.
Or possibly not, as the Constitutional Court will issue a ruling on Wednesday this week on whether or not the public vote can go ahead. Parliamentary chairman Richard Sulik convened the vote for 17 June, which means the Constitutional Court could still throw yet another spanner in the works.
The opposition wants to keep the vote a secret ballot, as it then has the chance of cashing in on any ‘traitors’ from the ranks of the coalition who would vote for their candidate instead. If the vote is public, everyone is under the magnifying glass and so such a scenario is less likely.
It was interim Attorney General Ladislava Tichy that forwarded the petition to the Constitutional Court, requesting examination of the legitimacy of the government’s recent enactment that made the vote public instead of secret. Tichy wants the court to annul the government’s revision to the Rules of Procedure as politically motivated.
Sulik requested the Constitutional Court to throw Tichy’s petition off the table, claiming that Tichy has no authority to file such petitions as he is only in an acting role as Attorney General.
President Gasparovic also threw in his bit, as is often the case on the side of the opposition, saying there was no need to rush and that Sulik shouldn’t have tried to convene a vote session before the court issued its verdict. Otherwise, as president he says he would not be able to appoint the winner if it is against the ruling of the Constitutional Court.