The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) postponed the setting down of the procedure and criteria for selecting the candidates for the post of Constitutional Court judge due to the absence of a quorum, IPN reports.

At the start of the meeting, the SCM members initiated discussions on the participation of the acting minister of justice, who is an ex-officio member, at a time when this does not have full powers.

Fadei Nagachevski said that he just wanted to inform that he made an approach to the SCM by which he asked to put the provisions of the Constitution into practice and to ultimately designate the CC judge as the Court’s composition is not complete and this affects the integrity of the Court, which is also considerably exposed politically owing to the inter-institutional conflict between the presidential administration and Parliament.

The SCM members decided that the acting minister of justice cannot take part in the meeting.

After examining about 20 issues from the agenda and raising the selection of the CC judges, the SCM members ascertained the absence of a quorum. Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo left the meeting so as to join the Supreme Security Council, while Ion Crețu is taking part in a contest. It was thus decided to put off the issue for another meeting.

The Constitutional Court has six judges who are appointed for a six-year term. Two judges are named by Parliament, two by the Government and two by the Superior Council of Magistracy. The post of a CC judge named by the SCM fell vacant following the death of Eduard Ababei.

Sixteen persons applied to take part in the contest.