The post of Attorney General, which has been empty since February 2011, looks set to remain empty as President Ivan Gasparovic still refuses to appoint elected candidate Jozef Centes and now the voting procedure in May that preceded his election is being investigated.
Centes was the candidate of the four coalition parties and was legally elected to occupy the post of Attorney General in a blind ballot that took place in parliament. In a previous round, Centres withdrew his candidacy and the coalition blocked the vote, so now based on an anonymous petition from September, an investigation has been launched to see if MPs had been coerced into voting or acting in a certain way.
Around 25 MPs have already been heard regarding the case, one of whom allegedly admitted to being given instructions by a deputy chairman of parliament.
The Constitutional court recently ruled that the election of Centes to the post was in line with the law, but the President is not obliged to appoint him by any specific term, and so the battle over the Attorney General post continues.