Today the National Ombudsman published two revised lists of qualifying and non-qualifying candidates for one of the 27 available positions in the three vetting institutions, the Independent Qualification Commission, the Appeals College, and the Public Commissioners.
After the evaluating the materials sent in during the additional application period of 7 days mandated by the Parliament, the National Ombudsman announced that there are 84 qualifying candidates and 109 candidates who do not fulfill the formal criteria. Both lists have been published on the Ombudsman’s website. The 84 candidates include the 8 candidates previously but on the black list by the International Monitoring Operation (ONM).
As previously announced, the ONM will again review the two lists and append its recommendations, after which the three lists are returned to the National Ombudsman who will forward them to Parliament.
During the first “round,” only 28 applicants were put on the qualifying list, eight of which received a negative recommendation of the ONM.
Parliament will then be faced with the task of forming the first ad-hoc committee to open the sealed envelope containing and decide on the final list of qualifying candidates, to be sent to two other ad-hoc committees that will vote on the actual positions for the three institutions.
The Constitution as been designed in such a way that the process, once the ad-hoc committees are formed, will be guaranteed to have an outcome within a determinate time frame. The problem is now to actually establish the three parliamentary committees, which appears impossible in the face of the opposition’s boycott of Parliament.
