Contest for appointment of judge at Moldova's Constitutional Court fails

Chisinau, 23 June /MOLDPRES/ - The contest for the nomination of a judge at the Constitutional Court (CCM) has failed. The candidates registered in the contest did not accumulate the needed number of votes on behalf of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), to be nominated as judge at CCM.     

Eleven candidates submitted files to the contest for the nomination of a CCM judge. Subsequently, Nina Cernat submitted an application on the withdrawal from contest and Cârnaț Teodor, Balan Gheorghe, Corj Mihai and Petrache Mihail were excluded from the contest by the CSM plenum. The candidates who remained in the contest, at a CSM meeting from 22 June, failed to collect the needed number of votes to be nominated as CCM judge.    

Following the contest’s failure, a CSM member, Ion Guzun, said that CSM would soon work out ‘’clear and good rules’’ for a new contest. ‘’This contest has left me a bitter taste that there are no candidates for the highest offices in the state, whose experience can be compared. I want to refer especially to the unworthy behavior of more candidates. All confusion organized, the discussions with high tonality, abusive challenges, and in some cases with excessive deliriums, also contributed to the assessment of candidates. I regret much that the great majority of the candidates neglected the authority of CSM and Constitutional Court. The great majority of the candidates invoked that the candidate due to be put forward is already known. Four candidates left the hall where the contest was held; respectively, they were excluded from the contest. The final solution - CSM chose no candidate,’’ Ion Guzun noted.      

Teodor Cârnaț, one of the candidates who submitted application on participation in the contest, said: ‘’We voted good people; we expected the change; we have  eventually got a political re-seizure of CSM and other state institutions, forgetting about the noble principle of the contests and namely the meritocratic one.’’  

The contest for the nomination of a CCM judge was announced on 15 June 2023.