The Ministry of Justice agrees with the idea of selecting the prosecutor general by the votes of the members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP), but proposes completing the formula with an assessment scale. Minister of Justice Veronica Mihailov-Moraru said the process of selecting the candidate for prosecutor general must be transparent and credible, IPN reports.
The Ministry of Justice’s opinion on the bill to amend the law on the Prosecutor’s Office says that the procedure for selecting the prosecutor general must be completed. According to the minister, candidates must be selected based on an assessment scale and must be confirmed by the SCP members by vote.
“The author of the bill considers that the selection of the winner by the votes of SCP members will offer greater discretion to members and greater responsibility for the given vote. We must admit that the experience of points-based competitions in the Republic of Moldova was not the most successful one. After the score was published, we saw that some members obviously gave points in such a way as to disadvantage a candidate so that this was disqualified from the competition. In our opinion, we showed yet that the criteria for selecting the prosecutor should be completed. Voting is not a wrong way. Even the SCM votes. But there must be an assessment scale. This assessment scale can also be validated by voting. This selection process should be as credible as possible,” Veronica Mihailov-Moraru stated in the program “Public Space” on Radio Moldova.
The official noted that the procedure for selecting the prosecutor general must be as transparent and credible as possible so that it does not generate suspicions about how the head of the Prosecutor General’s Office was elected.
“In other states, the prosecutor is elected either by vote or by various combined methods. It is at the discretion of the state when it comes to such important processes for the justice system. It is important that the process be transparent and clear, according to the assessment criteria so that society is convinced that a person who deserves was selected. In our country, we will create all the necessary conditions to choose the best one through this mechanism,” said the minister of justice.
Under the law, the prosecutor general is appointed by the President of the Republic of Moldova at the proposal of the Superior Council of Prosecutors for a seven-year term.
