The Constitutional Committee has issued a public call for the election of one judge of the Constitutional Court, the application deadline is 15 days.

The Parliamentary Constitutional Committee today issued a public call for the election of one judge of the Constitutional Court, and the application deadline will be 15 days - which is the legal minimum.

The decision to issue a public call was made unanimously, and the call will be issued on December 3rd.

The head of that parliamentary body, Jelena Božović (New Serbian Democracy), proposed that the invitation deadline be 20 days, instead of the previous 30.

Darko Dragović, a member of parliament from the ruling Europe Now Movement (PES), said that the party's proposal is for the public call to last 15 days.

Sonja Popović, an MP from the strongest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), said that she was not sure that shortening the deadline to the legal minimum was a good idea, and that 30 days might be too much, and that Božović's proposal of 20 days was the best solution.

Democratic Party representative Nikola Rovčanin agreed with Dragović's proposal of 15 days, emphasizing that it is necessary to create a calendar of activities.

Socialist People's Party (SNP) Assembly member Bojan Božović said that the party also agrees with Dragović's proposal.

Bosniak Party (BS) MP Jasmin Ćorović said that BS also agreed with the 15-day proposal, but also called on the committee to respect the law and the Constitution, and to respect the rights of minorities and propose a candidate of Bosniak ethnicity for the Constitutional Court judge.

Božović stated that the committee will make every effort to propose candidates by the end of January, so that the highest legislative chamber can vote on their proposal in an extraordinary session (given that the parliament is "on vacation" from January 1 to the end of February).

"The intention is to elect a functional Constitutional Court, without the Parliament acting as a brake on that process," said Božović.

Popović said at today's committee meeting that the narrative being promoted that the opposition is to blame for the failure to elect judges to the Constitutional Court is incorrect, and that the fault lies solely with the ruling majority.

PES parliamentarian Boris Pejović pointed out that the candidacy of the head of state Jakov Milatović, Mirjana Vučinić, would have been elected if all DPS deputies had been in the parliamentary benches on voting day.

Rovčanin stated that convening a session of the Constitutional Committee at short notice is a message from the ruling majority that it cares about filling the Constitutional Court.

He said that Milatović had to hold consultations with all interested parties in parliament before nominating Mirjana Vučinić as a judge of the Constitutional Court.

Jovan Jovanović was elected last week as a new judge of the Constitutional Court, while Mirjana Vučinić and Mirjana Radović did not receive the necessary support from MPs at the parliamentary session.

Jovanović received 50 votes, one against and three abstentions. Radović received 47 votes, two against and three abstentions. As for Vučinić, 45 votes were in favor of her appointment, while 11 abstained.

Vučinić was proposed as a judge by the head of state Jakov Milatović, and Radović and Jovanović by the parliamentary Constitutional Committee.

Before Jovanović's election, the Constitutional Court had four judges out of the seven that should be there by law. With Jovanović's election, their number increased to five, but only briefly, as Judge Desanka Lopičić's term expires at the end of the year, so there will be four again.

The Constitutional Court with that number of judges is not blocked and can decide, but in that case it needs all four judges to vote in the same way.

Milatović announced a new call for a Constitutional Court judge on Friday.

The first attempt to elect judges failed on October 14th, because none of the proposed candidates received a two-thirds majority - 54 "hands" of parliamentarians.