SaS Lambasts Postponing of Constitutional Court Judge Election

Bratislava, May 2 (TASR) - Opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) blasted the postponing of the election of a Constitutional Court judge in Parliament as well as the ouster of Andrej Majernik and Jan Mazak as members of the Judicial Council. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, MP Maria Kolikova (SaS) stated that SaS is convinced that the election has been postponed so that it'll be next president Peter Pellegrini who chooses a new judge from the approved candidates. "This is how the law gets circumvented," she noted and added that the opposition would be capable to concur on names of two Constitutional Court judge candidates and support them. [90 votes are needed to have such a judge elected, which the coalition alone doesn't control - ed.note] Kolikova also lambasted the ouster of Majernik and Mazak as members of the Judicial Council and called the reasons given by the coalition as risible lies. SaS doesn't entertain putting forth its own nomination for the Judicial Council member posts. "It's obvious that our motion wouldn't pass. Had we seen there's even a smidge of a chance, we would have considered it. At the moment, however, we don't think it would bring any benefit to such a nominee, only a [verbal] lynching," added Kolikova. mf/mcs