Hearings for Constitutional Court begin

The Constitutional Committee of the Slovak National Council begins its hearings of the new candidates for the position of Constitutional court judges. On Thursday, the first day of the public hearings, 14 candidates are invited to present their qualifications, with another 15 will continue on Friday. This time 29 candidates have registered for the position of constitutional court judges, most of them are running already for the second time. MPs should elect 18 candidates and submit them to the president, who will appoint nine of them to replace the judges whose term in office expired in mid-February. This is the second attempt by MPs to find candidates for the most important court in Slovakia. In February, 38 candidates were on the list but the MPs from the largest coalition party Smer cast empty ballots in a protest against the vote being public. The opposition was displeased with former Prime Minister Robert Fico's candidacy. This time he is not running again.