November is near: How will the new judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH be elected?

(Patria) - The mandate of the judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Seada Palavrić, is set to expire in November 2024 due to her reaching the age of 70.

According to the rules of the Constitutional Court of BiH, the President of the Constitutional Court shall initiate the procedure for electing a judge in accordance with the Constitution of BiH no later than six months before the expiry of a judge's mandate due to age.

The President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Valerija Galić, has already informed the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament about the expiry of Judge Paravlić's mandate and the necessity of electing a new judge.

Dragan Mioković, the newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, confirmed that the request to fill the next vacant position has reached the Parliament.

"I hope that we will be significantly more efficient in the new situation. I want to believe that we will amend the decision on the method of electing judges as soon as possible. Only Our Party has made a concrete proposal for amendments. We want to conduct interviews with candidates, we want to do this through a parliamentary hearing in a way that a representative of each political option participates in the body that will interview the candidates, and the method of election itself needs to be significantly more precisely defined," said Mioković.

At the session that began on May 28 and concluded on the morning of May 29, Marin Vukoja was elected as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH. He was also the only candidate, as adopted by the Election and Appointment Committee and submitted as a proposal to the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament.

Opposition representatives will file a new appeal with the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH, as they believe the procedure was not followed, and that the Parliament did not truly choose among candidates but rather confirmed a candidate.

Vukoja is expected to take office after the decision is published in the official gazettes. He can remain in that position for the next 19 years, i.e., until he reaches the age of 70, or until he submits his resignation.