President Andrej Kiska has dismissed three members of the Judicial Council - Maria Bujnakova, Gabriela Simonova and Eduard Barany – and replaced them with Jan Klucka, Jozef Vozar and Elena Berthotyova. Kiska pointed out that the newly appointed members of the Council shall hold office independently.
However, at the same time, he added that after discussions he found that all three new members of the Judicial Council have similar views on the vote of the Supreme Court chairman – Stefan Harabin. President Kiska made it no secret that he would like to see two-times Supreme Court Chairman Stefan Harabin not receive a third term. The vote will most probably take place in mid September. The current Supreme Court Chairman Stefan Harabin remains in the chair until the end of this week, 22 June. As an unsuccessful candidate in the first round which was held on 19 May, Harabin can’t run in the next round. As Slovak President of only four days, Andrej Kiska has already made another change. “I’ve signed a presidential decision on the establishment of an advisory committee for assessment of the suitability of candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court,” stated Kiska. The role of the advisory committee is to assess the six candidates for Constitutional Court judges elected by Parliament and to propose three who should be then be appointed by the President. Moreover, the President confirmed that he will not issue a grand amnesty but only grant one in extraordinary cases.
