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Coalition: Repeated Vote on GP to Take Place on Tuesday
Thursday 02 December 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 2 (TASR) - Parliament will sit on for a repeated vote within the second attempt at electing a prosecutor- general, Coalition leaders agreed at a meeting on Thursday afternoon. The repeated vote was originally set for later Thursday afternoon, according to SDKU-DS chairman Mikulas Dzurinda but shortly afterwards SaS Chairman and Parliamentary Chairman Richard Sulik set the record straight and it would be held on Tuesday.
According to Dzurinda, the repeated secret vote will show no winner after all. "Coalition MPs will make sure that no-one gets elected. In the days ahead we'll come to an agreement on a new election [rather than a repeated vote - ed. note]," Dzurinda said.
"Speaking for SDKU-DS, I want to say that we'll promote the idea that the election rules are changed in order to make the general- prosecutor election takes place in a recorded vote," said Dzurinda. Dzurinda insists that none of the SDKU-DS lawmakers in the unsuccessful vote broke the coalition deal and that all of them voted for the Coalition nominee Jozef Centes.
Dzurinda also said that his party is happy with Centes being the nominee of all four coalition parties.
The Coalition leaders met because earlier on Thursday Parliament again failed to elect the prosecutor-general via secret ballot.
Out of 149 MPs present, Dobroslav Trnka received 74 votes, while coalition parties' nominee Jozef Centes got 73 votes and two ballots were spoiled. With 70 (out of a possible 71) opposition MPs present, it appears that at least four coalition MPs must have voted for Trnka.
This means that none of the two candidates received the needed simple majority of those present to be elected.
This was the third vote (however, under two elections) in recent weeks that has proven inconclusive. In the first attempt, Eva Misikova, Trnka and Jan Hrivnak were in the first round. The second round was a run-off between Trnka and Misikova in which Trnka finished first but again failed to gain a simple majority. Tuesday's vote will again be Trnka vs Centes.
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