Petrit Plloçi, a Constitutional Court member since 2001, has resigned from his post today at 10:00.
Sources at this court confirmed for Top Channel that Mr. Plloci resigned in protest against the unreasonable and anti-constitutional extension of his mandate as Constitutional Court member.
Plloci’s 9-year-long mandate ended one year and a half ago, while the Constitutional Court rejected the President’s demand that considered the blocking of three Presidential decrees as anti-constitutional.
The majority argued that for respecting the rotation of the Constitutional Court members, the new appointed names should be made in 2013. Mr. Plloci was one of the few members that voted against this decision.
Plloci argues that the Constitutional Court member can stay on his duty until he is substituted, but the mandate cannot be prolonged this much and in such a substantial way.
According to him, this is against the Constitution too, which foresees a 9 year long Constitutional Judge mandate. After this resignation, the Constitutional Court is in a difficult moment.
The Court will declare the vacant place, while the President and the Parliament will undertake the procedure for the new appointment. The problem is that the President has decreed three names, which the Parliament refused to review, and the case went to the Constitutional Court.
By rejecting the President’s request, the question risen is if the procedure initiated by the president for the decree of three new members is zeroed and it must start from the beginning, or if these three names will be suspended until 2013.
If the procedure will start from the beginning, will the new member have a 9-year-term or 1-year-term mandate, until 2013, when the Constitutional Court declared that they will renew their members? This legal mishmash has a true element: with only 8 members, the Constitutional Court cannot take other decisions.
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