The National Assembly adopted procedural rules for the nomination and election of magistrates for the Constitutional Court from its quota. The elections will be held on October 31, 2012.
Candidates will be nominated until October 10. Non-profit organizations will have until October 17 to submit their their opinions on the nominations. The procedural rules specifically provide for the candidates to submit their statements on the interpretative role and practice of the Constitutional Court and its ruling on motions to establish the unconstitutional character of laws and other acts, as well as disputes of competence.
In the week to follow, on October 24, the nominees will participate in a hearing in a public sitting of the Legal Affairs Committee. The hearing will include presentation of the nominees by the nominators succeeded by personal presentation of the candidate, questions by members of the Parliament and the candidates’ responses thereto.
The comparison to the recently concluded procedure for the election of members of the Supreme Judicial Council by the Parliament quota leads to infer that some of the provisions differ from those in the rules on the SJC elections in terms that might decrease their publicity. The time limits for the provided actions (nominations, submission of documents, etc.) are considerably narrowed. Furthermore, the rules provide that proposals and documents be published in accordance to the Personal Data Protection Act and Classified Data Protection Act, and all data in the documents of the candidates which constitute personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act be deleted. Moreover, the rules do not envision that the Legal Affairs Committee prepare a report on the hearing, containing conclusions on the nominations, on the candidates compliance with the legal requirements for the position, or any other relevant information.