By Boldnews.al
The Supreme Prosecutorial Council is expected to approve on Wednesday the nominees that meet the formal criteria to continue running for the full-time Prosecutor General’s office.
The process of final selection by Parliament is expected to take place no earlier than December of this year, two years after the Socialist majority in Parliament appointed Arta Marku to the position of Interim Attorney General with only its votes.
In December 2017, senior Socialist Party exponents, including Parliamentary Group Chairman Taulant Balla and head of the Law Commission, Ulsi Manja, promised that the Prosecutor General would be constitutionally elected within 3-4 months of the appointment of Temporary ”, therefore, in the period March-April 2018.
But, 22 months after his unilateral appointment, Arta Marku has performed her full-time job, including a long series of decisions and positions in favor of the political entity that nominated her.
The process of selecting a full-time Prosecutor General will require at least two more months, according to the procedures and deadlines set by the High Prosecutorial Council.
In April 2019, the High Council of the Prosecutor submitted their request to have the applicants for the position of General Prosecutor, specifically; Interim Chief Prosecutor Arta Marku, Tirana Appellate Prosecutor Fatjona Memcaj, Serious Crimes Prosecutor Olsian Cela and lawyer Lulzim Alushaj.
The Rules of Procedure of the High Prosecutorial Council provide that prosecutorial applicants must meet, inter alia, the condition of passing the Veting process by a final decision.
This Tuesday, the final decision was confirmed by the applicant Olsian Cela, while the other applicants, Arta Marku and Fatjona Memcaj, have positively completed the reassessment process earlier. While for Alushaj’s lawyer, the “self” is carried out by the Supreme Prosecutorial Council.
From this point onwards, after all prosecutor applicants have completed the Vetting process, the High Prosecutorial Council’s deadlines for listing candidates who meet the legal criteria, which are then passed to Parliament for voting, apply.
On Wednesday (25.09), the Supreme Prosecutorial Council is expected to announce the list of candidates who meet the formal criteria to continue the race. The Rules for the Election of the Attorney General provide that, if any of the candidates is excluded from the race, he or she has the right to appeal to the court.
Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal for the candidate / candidates excluded from the race must be made within 3 days of making the decision. In the meantime, the Court must issue a decision within 7 days. In case of possible appeals, the continuation of the candidate selection process is delayed by another 10 days.
Following this phase, the candidates who are following the race are expected to appear at a special hearing before the Supreme Prosecutorial Council. The hearing shall be announced to the candidates at least 10 days in advance.
Following the hearings, members of the Supreme Prosecutorial Council will take their time to give assessments to each candidate, referring to the file of documents, as well as interviews.
This phase requires at least 15 days to serve each member of the High Prosecutorial Council to reach a well-reasoned conclusion. In applying these deadlines, the procedures run until the end of October.
Afterwards, each member submits his assessment to the Chairman of the High Prosecutorial Council, which convenes a special meeting, where the listing of the 3 candidates is finally decided, according to the points obtained during the evaluation.
The 3-list list is sent to Parliament for a vote. The constitution provides that Parliament elects the Prosecutor General by a qualified majority of 3/5 of the deputies, 84 votes.
In the event that Parliament fails to elect the Attorney General within 30 days, the first candidate on the list drawn up by the Supreme Prosecutorial Council shall be automatically elected to the head of the Prosecutor’s Office for a full 7-year term.
Taking into account all the deadlines set forth in the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Supreme Prosecutorial Council, it is concluded that the Constitutional Prosecutor General cannot be elected before December 2019.
