The competition to appoint a judge to the Constitutional Court from the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) has failed. None of the candidates entered in the competition managed to win the support of the members of the SCM at the meeting on Thursday 22 June.

Members of the SCM heard five candidates: the judge of the Chisinau Court of Appeals Radu Turcan, the lawyer Ilie Rotaru, the head of the Research and Analysis Department of the CC Maria Strulea, the resigning judge and member of the Pre-Vetting Commission Tatiana Răducan and the lawyer Procopie Zaharia. Oleg Potîrniche requested that his candidacy be examined without being present, and SCM member Ioana Chironeț proposed that his candidacy be rejected because he did not meet the necessary requirements, as the documents were not certified and signed.

Teodor Cârnaț, Mihai Corj, Mihail Petrache and Gheorghe Balan were excluded from the competition.

“Today we witnessed a less pleasant event due to the behaviour of some candidates. Indeed, we witnessed some accusations, some manipulations that continued after some candidates left the meeting room. We intentionally let those candidates expose themselves so that everybody could have the opportunity to see their behaviour (…). I voted against all of them for the following reasons: as I said during today’s meeting, unfortunately, after 2019, when those calls for the formation of a new Constitutional Court began following the resignation you know, the SCM was not able to establish clear conditions for participation, to establish criteria that would allow the election of the best candidates for the most important position of judge at the CC (…)”, said SCM member Alexandru Postica.

Eleven candidates have submitted applications to participate in the competition for the replacement of the post of judge at the Constitutional Court, according to the list included in the agenda of the extraordinary meeting of the SCP under the item “Competition for the appointment of a judge to the Constitutional Court”.

This is the same list of candidates as in 2021:

• Oleg Potîrniche, coordinating specialist, Public Services Agency
• Teodor Cârnaț, Professor, Faculty of Law, State University of Moldova
• Mihai Corj, lawyer, CA “Mihai Corj”, mediator
• Radu Țurcanu, Judge, Chisinau Court of Appeals
• Ilie Rotaru, lawyer
• Maria Strulea, Head of Research and Analysis Department, Constitutional Court
• Tatiana Răducanu, Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice, resigned
• Procopie Zaharia, lawyer
• Nina Cernat Judge, Chisinau Court of Appeal/ member of the Superior Council of Magistracy
• Mihail Petrache, legal coordinator, Institute of Genetics, Plant Physiology and Protection
• Gheorghe Balan, Judge, Chisinau Court

ZdG analysed in September 2021 the work of the 11 candidates for the position of judge at the Constitutional Court and provided details about their careers.

The names of some of them appeared or appear in criminal cases or in cases lost by Moldova at the European Court of Human Rights.

The post of judge at the CC became vacant on 28 January 2021 after the death of magistrate Eduard Ababei. The competition for the post of judge at the Constitutional Court (CC) was cancelled in June 2021 on the grounds that no candidate met the conditions for appointment as a CC judge. Earlier, Gheorghe Balan, a candidate for the post of judge at the CC, had requested the SCM to postpone the competition to fill the vacant post at the CC until the SCM had taken a decision on the appointment of some members of the SCM.

According to the law on the Constitutional Court, the authority of constitutional jurisdiction is composed of 6 judges, appointed for a 6-year term. Two judges are appointed by the Parliament, two by the Government and two by the Superior Council of Magistrates.

The President of the Constitutional Court Nicolae Rosca and Judge Liuba Sova were appointed by the Government, Judge Domnica Manole and Magistrate Vladimir Turcan – appointed by the Parliament, and Judge Sergei Turcan was appointed by decision of the SCM. They are part of the CC composition in 2019.