Belgrade (BETAPHOTO/ANA SLOVIC)
A Member of Parliament of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the lawyer Toma Fila, said on Dec. 22 that he had objections to the constitutional amendments related to the national judiciary, but that he wasn’t sure whether he would support them in referendum, scheduled for Jan. 16, or not.
Fila said to BETA that it’s not good that the High Judicial Council should decide on the election of judges instead of Members of Parliament. “Eleven members of the High Judicial Council cannot decide on the election of all judges in Serbia. They will be the most powerful people in the country. If the Constitution of Serbia is changed that way, a risk of nepotism will be associated with judicial elections. It is quite likely that that judges’ children will be elected judges, as is already the case in Serbian universities, where professors’ children enjoy advantage in getting tenures, or like coming from an acting family carves your career in acting,” the lawyer warns.
Fila says that as a member of the parliamentary Committee on constitutional affairs he was in minority when the constitutional change was discussed. “I urge the citizens of Serbia to vote in the referendum according to their own personal conscience. I haven’t decided how to vote yet, but I’m more inclined to a ‘no’,” the lawyer said.
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