Human Rights Action (HRA) greets the decision of the Constitutional Court of 23 July 2014 that provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro on election of the Supreme State Prosecutor (SSP), which were amended to add the third round of voting, are not in conformity with the Constitution.
HRA submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court to review constitutionality of Art. 178, para 6 and 7 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament in March 2014.
The Constitutional Court has already concluded in its preliminary decision – to accept the initiative and suspend SSP’s election – that the Parliament “exceeded its powers” and “defined the Supreme State Prosecutor’s election in the challenged provisions of Art. 178, para 6 and 7 of the Rules of Procedure in a manner contrary to the Constitution, providing for additional ‘third’ and ‘fourth round’”.
The decision of the Constitutional Court indicates that even when MPs subsequently determine that the Montenegrin Constitution was not written carefully enough, they cannot change it with laws, which are acts of lower legal force, as it is contrary to the principle of constitutionality – the basic principle of the legal order.
HRA warns about the continuous practice of electing heads of the judiciary in an unconstitutional manner; thus, the ongoing election for President of the Supreme Court is conducted under the provisions of the Law on the Judicial Council that contravene the Constitution.
HRA submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of these provisions, and we believe it is important for the Court to urgently determine its position on the said initiative and temporarily suspend the election for President of the Supreme Court.
