Budapest, Aug 11 (IANS) Hungary’s parliament on Tuesday elected former Supreme Court chief Andras Baka as the country’s new President.
Baka, 73, the sole candidate in the election, received 140 votes in a secret ballot. He was nominated by the ruling Tisza party on Saturday, which holds the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to elect the President without opposition support.
The party’s parliamentary faction chose Baka in a secret ballot from a three-person shortlist, the Tisza said in a statement. Under Hungarian law, a presidential nominee requires the backing of at least one-fifth of lawmakers, or 40 MPs, to enter the ballot.
Baka served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1991 to 2008 before Hungary’s parliament elected him president of the Supreme Court in 2009, Xinhua News Agency reported.
His mandate was cut short in 2011 following judicial reforms introduced by then Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz government. Baka subsequently continued working as a judge at Hungary’s top court.
Tisza said Baka had consistently defended the rule of law, judicial independence and the separation of powers.
Former President Tamas Sulyok’s mandate ended at midnight on July 20 under the 17th amendment to Hungary’s Fundamental Law.
Speaker of Parliament Agnes Forsthoffer is currently serving as acting president. Under the Fundamental Law, parliament must elect a new president within 30 days.
In a document published on the parliament’s website last week, Tisza group leader Andrea Bujdoso requested that the presidential election be added to the agenda of an extraordinary parliamentary session scheduled for Aug. 10-11. The group also proposed holding the vote on Aug. 11.
Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said he had met Baka.
In a Facebook post, Magyar described Baka as one of Hungary’s most respected experts on European law and constitutional affairs, and said the two had “plenty to discuss,” without elaborating.
–IANS
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