Prosecutor: High Prosecutorial Council Facing Catch-22 Situation

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad (Photo; novisad.vjt.rs)

Serbia’s High Prosecutorial Council has difficulty passing decisions even when all 11 members are present and involved so its current situation – where it has eight members and must unanimously choose another three by April 6 – may very likely result a series of repeat elections, warned prosecutor Radovan Lazic of the Novi Sad Appeals Prosecutor’s Office.

In an interview for the March 2 edition of the Nova daily, Lazic explained that, so far, two of the five vacant seats on the Council have been filled, bringing its current membership up to eight, i.e. its quorum. As a result, the body now faces a Catch-22 situation, since it can legally make decisions yet must elect its remaining members unanimously while composed of individuals with strongly conflicting political stances.

The latest election for the vacant seats were repeated per decision of the Constitutional Court, since the High Prosecutorial Council missed the deadline for responding to complaints filed regarding the vote.

Now, Lazic said, “the elections have been repeated and complaints have again been lodged. Given the current balance of power, it is reasonable to expect that the Council will again fail to reach a decision by the legal deadline, leaving the Constitutional Court to again rule on the repeated vote. The Constitutional Court will then be in the same situation [it was in before] and can hardly order anything other than what it did the first time: for the election to be repeated at the polling stations where the complaints were submitted.”

In addition to said conundrum, Lazic also recalled that the vote before the currently repeated one was voided for procedural reasons despite neither the Council nor the Constitutional Court determining any violations of the election process.