The legislative initiative put forward by a group of lawmakers for instituting the unanimous vote of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) when repeatedly fielding the same candidates for the post of judge is dangerous and runs counter to the strategy for reforming the justice system, said the head of the Legal Resources Center Vladislav Gribincea.

In a news conference at IPN, Vladislav Gribincea said that on September 17 a number of NGOs made an appeal to Parliament, asking excluding the unanimous vote from the bill and holding public debates on this initiative. But the civil society representatives received no answer from the legislature.

According to the legislative body, the institution of the unanimous vote of the CSM members when repeatedly fielding the same candidates for the post of judge means that a judge cannot be confirmed in post or promoted without the consent of the prosecutor general and the minister of justice, who are ex officio member of the CSM. Thus, this initiative creates preconditions for the executive and the Prosecutor General’s Office to control the judges and this is an obstacle to creating an independent judicial system.

The head of the Legal Resources Center also said that such a precedent existed in Moldova until 2005, when several hundred judges were dismissed without declared reasons. As a result, the judges feared to pronounce on decisions that could affect the state interests or the interests of the political elite.

The members of civil society consider that such practices should not be used in Moldova as they run counter to the justice sector reform strategy adopted by Parliament in the autumn of 2011. The strategy envisions amending the legislation in order to reduce the control of the executive and the legislature on judges.