BRATISLAVA, December 7, (WEBNOVINY)- As expected, Slovak lawmakers failed to elect the new prosecutor general for the next seven-year term in the Tuesday’s secret ballot. MPs for the governing coalition did not cast their ballots and thus none of the candidates won the necessary simple majority of the votes.
Of the 150 deputies who took over their ballot papers, 71 voted for the incumbent Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka while the ruling coalition’s joint candidate Jozef Centes did not win a single vote. Seventy-nine deputies of the coalition did not cast their ballots.
It was already the fourth failed attempt of parliament to give Slovakia a new prosecutor general. In the first round of the second election last Thursday, six coalition deputies voted for Trnka proposed by SMER’s deputy Mojmir Mamojka. The ruling quartet therefore decided that the next election will not be secret but open. It will prepare a draft amendment to the parliamentary standing order and other laws and will submit them to parliament next year.
The next public voting on the new prosecutor general is expected in April or May, as first respective legislative changes have to be green-lighted. The opposition however fundamentally opposes an open election believing that it would be at odds with the constitution. The term in office of the incumbent Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka terminates on February 2. 2011.
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova several times confirmed her intention to resign from her post if Trnka re-wins the post.
SITA