The results of pre-vetting are rather modest as only 20% of those who apply to the contest pass the test, said the director of the Legal Resources Center Ilie Chirtoacă. According to him, the low pass rate shows that very harsh integrity criteria are applied. For the current Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) to be fully representative, the judges representing the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Justice and three members of civil society need to be appointed, IPN reports.
The jurist noted that the cleaning of the SCM through three agency of the pre-vetting commission is designed to contribute to cleaning the whole system and to restore the citizens’ confidence in the Moldovan justice system.
“The results of pre-vetting are modest. Only two in ten persons who apply to the contest pass the test. In the case of the SCM, there were 28 judge candidates and only five of them passed the test. In the case of non-judge candidates, 12 applied to the contest and only three were chosen. These results point to very high integrity rigor. We, as the representatives of civil society, see these results as something positive. Things should better go slowly, but appropriately so that the persons who pass the test enjoy authority among their colleagues and the public. This way we will also restore confidence in justice, which for many years has remained under 20%,” Ilie Chirtoacă stated in the program “Public Space” on Radio Moldova.
The Superior Council of Magistracy consists of 12 members. So far, Parliament designated three of the six members from among non-judges. Also, the General Assembly of Judges elected four members of the SCM out of six. Together with Nina Cernat, SCM member from the previous composition, the Council now works with eight members.
“The SCM is functional, but its representativeness is questionable. All the representatives of the system must be present on this body. In the Republic of Moldova, we have three representation levels: judges, the Appeal Courts, the Supreme Court of Justice. Representatives of all these levels need to work in the SCM. The new members of the Council are representatives of judges as the representatives of the Appeals Courts and the Supreme Court of Justice haven’t passed the pre-vetting test. A new contest will be now initiated to fill these vacancies. We want to have a functional and representative SCM. Three representatives of civil society and two representatives of these courts still need to be elected,” said Ilie Chirtoacă.
Currently, the pre-vetting commission is assessing the candidates for member of the Superior Council of Prosecutors. So far, only two candidates for this post passed the test, while another eight candidates are waiting for the commission’s decision.
