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View Full Version : Participacion Ciudadana criticizes higher courts judge selection



NewsWhore
01-02-2012, 03:00 PM
On Tuesday, 27 December, directors of the civil society watchdog, Participacion Ciudadana, Samir Chami Isa and Javier Cabrera complained that politics had prevailed in the selection of the justices. Participacion Ciudadana said that the selection of judges made evident there was a pact between the president of the PRD, Miguel Vargas and President Leonel Fernandez, with the granting of five justices that are partial to the latter. Miguel Vargas has set differences from his former rival for the PRD presidential candidacy, now held by former President Hipolito Mejia.

The Participacion Ciudadana spokesmen said that the choices of the Supreme Electoral Court maintain the tradition of distributing them between the political parties, mentioning that two of the justices are members of the PLD and a third of the PRD, and two of the alternates are related to the PRSC. "This situation leaves the electoral justices with a deficit of credibility regarding their impartiality and independence."

Participacion Ciudadana also highlighted that the three former Supreme Court justices had cast dissident votes in the Sun Land case where the government bypassed Congress when taking on a millionaire debt, Julio Anibal Suarez, Eglis Esmurdoc and Ana Rosa Berges, and who had aspired to continue serving in the Supreme Court of Justice were removed. Furthermore, they criticized the fact that of all the former members of the Central Electoral Board, doctor Aura Celeste Fernandez, who has proven to be the most independent and coherent, was not included in any of the courts. "This would be a way of conditioning the justices to refrain from taking decisions that could affect the interests of those who control the National Judicial Council (CNM) at any time," commented the spokesmen, as reported in Listin Diario.

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