On March 9 the International Monitoring Operation (ONM) is expected to hand in its recommendations regarding the candidates for the institutions that will perform the transitional reassessment of all judges, prosecutors, and supporting personnel, commonly known as vetting. The three institutions, the Independent Qualification Commission (KPK), Appeals College (KA), and the Public Commissioners will be comprised of a total of 27 members.
On February 17, the National Ombudsman handed over the 190 dossiers of potential candidates, divided into two lists: one with the 29 candidates who fulfill the formal the qualifications, and one list with those who don’t. A commission containing at least three members of the ONM will now review all 190 dossiers as well as both lists, and send them back with its recommendations to the National Ombudsman. The National Ombudsman will forward both lists and the recommendations to the Speaker of Parliament.
First ad-hoc commission
Within three days after receiving the three lists with qualifying candidates, non-qualifying candidates, and ONM recommendations, Parliament has to create a first ad-hoc commission consisting of 6 majority and 6 minority deputies to compile the final list of candidates. The ad-hoc commission has the following competencies:
- It can vote with at least 4 votes to pass a candidate from the non-qualifying to the qualifying list;
- It can vote with at least 5 votes to pass a candidate from the ONM recommendations list to the qualifying list;
- Compilation of a final list, within ten days, of candidates for all the 27 positions in the vetting institutions from the list of qualifying candidates.
Second and third ad-hoc commissions
Within ten days after the creation of the final candidate list for the 27 positions by the first ad-hoc commission, Parliament creates two new ad-hoc commissions, one consisting of 6 majority and 6 minority deputies, and the other of 3 majority and 3 minority deputies.
The second ad-hoc commission will choose the 12 members of the KPK with 2 substitutes, as well as the 2 Public Commissioners with 2 substitutes.
The third ad-hoc commission will chooses the 7 members of the KA, and 2 substitutes.
The voting procedure for both the second and third ad-hoc commissions are complicated:
- The members of the second ad-hoc commission each choose without prior debate and through a secret electronic vote a candidate from the final list of qualifying candidates for one of the 12 positions in the KPK.
- From the remainder of the list, the two Public Commissioners the two substitute Public Commissioners, and the two substitute KPK members are chosen by a majority of votes of the second ad-hoc commission.
- The members of the third ad-hoc commission each choose without prior debate and through a secret electronic vote a candidate from the final list of qualifying candidates for one of 6 positions in the KA.
- From the remainder of the list, the 7th member of the KA and the two substitute members are chosen by a majority of votes of third ad-hoc commission
A list with all final 27 candidates is then sent back to Parliament, which will have to approve the list en bloc with 3/5 of the votes.
If Parliament fails to approve the list, the process in the second and third ad-hoc commissions is repeated within ten days. Within ten days after drafting this second final list, Parliament can reject it with 2/3 of the votes. If the second is not rejected, all 27 candidates are considered nominated.
Some catches
This process assumes are rather copious amount qualifying candidates in order to work smoothly, because it appears to assume to each member of the second and third ad-hoc commissions will choose a different qualifying candidate. This obviously gets more difficult the shorter the list of qualifying candidates is.
The National Ombudsman has only qualified 29 candidates for 27 positions. So either the first parliamentary ad-hoc commission must add a reasonable number of other candidates to the qualifying list from the list of non-qualifying candidates and the list of ONM recommendations, or risk a rather predictable voting ritual in the second and third ad-hoc commissions.
Moreover, the opposition is currently boycotting the Parliament. If it continues to so, the entire implementation of the judicial reform will come to a halt after March 9.
