Twelve nongovernmental organizations and media outlets consider the contest to select law professors as members of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) was held in a non-transparent way. They called on Parliament and every MP separately to examine the reputation and compatibility of every member that is to be confirmed, IPN reports.

On December 17, the Parliament’s legal commission for appointments and immunities published the list of the 14 candidates. They were interviewed on December 19. As a result of the contest, there were selected three candidates. These are Gheorghe Avornic, Teodor Carnat and Violeta Cojocaru.

The signatories of the call to Parliament consider the three may not the best candidates of those who took part in the contest. They are dissatisfied with the way the contest was held as the commission didn’t organize public consultations. Candidates’ CVs were made public on December 17 and on December 19 they were interviewed. This period was too short for appraisals of the candidates to be sent to the commission and for the mass media to examine the candidates.

“The commission didn’t explain the criteria based on which the candidates were selected, while the commission’s decision was taken in only several minutes of deliberation. These aspects can attract criticism as to the transparency of the contest and can undermine society’s confidence in the Supreme Council of Magistrates,” said the signatories. They ask publishing the voting results and the reasons for which the three candidates were accepted, while the others were rejected.

The signatories are: Amnesty International Moldova; the Association of Independent Press; the Association of Independent Telejournalists; the Center for Human Rights of Moldova; the Journalistic Investigations Center; the Legal Resources Center; the Resource Center for Human Rights; the Press Freedom Committee; East Europe Foundation; the Public Policy Institute; the Good Governance Program of Soros Foundation Moldova, and Ziarul de Garda newspaper.