The Cabinet approved the three candidates for the office of judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday, March 14. The judges are Victoria Iftodi, head of the diplomatic mission of Moldova to France, former minister of Justice Victor Orandas, judge at the Chisinau Economic Court, and Lilia Vasilevici, judge at the Chisinau Centru District Court, former chair of this court. The three candidacies were proposed by the Committee for selecting judges at ECHR on March 6. The candidates will be presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which will select one of them. According to sources from the “Jurists for Human Rights” Organisation, the three candidates were given 10, 11 and respectively 8 votes in their favour. On the whole, 13 persons applied for this office. The other candidates are Galina Bostan director of the Centre for Analysis and Corruption Prevention; Mihai Buruiana, lawyer, university lecturer; Vasile Dolghiereu, Lawyer, former-minister of Justice; Tudor Osoianu, university lecturer; Stanislav Pavlovschi, incumbent judge at ECHR on behalf of Moldova; Ion Paduraru, lawyer, former minister of Justice; Igor Pohila, lawyer; Silvia Pogolsa, officer for human rights, OSCE Mission in Erevan, former director of the Republican Centre for professional improvement in the Ministries of Justice and Prosecution Offices; Xenofon Ulianovschi, judge at the Chisinau Court of Appeals, and Veaceslav Zaporojan, assistant judge of the Constitutional Court. These candidates were given 1-2 votes in their favour, and the incumbent judge representing Moldova at ECHR did not receive a single vote. The decisions of the Committee were made based on the submitted applications without an interview, via open simple majority vote. According to the annex no 2 of the PACE resolution 1200 adopted in 1999, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will decide over the candidates for the office of ECHR judge within 2.5 months from the date when the application was submitted, but at least 4 months before the mandate of the present judge expires. The next meetings of the PACE will take place on April 16-19 and June 25-28. The present ECHR judge on behalf of Moldova is Stanislav Pavlovschi. His mandate expires on November 1 2007, but he might continue his term of office under the ECHR Protocol no 14. According to its article 21, the term of office of judges serving their first term may be extended so as to amount to a total period of nine years.