The appointment of 3 new members at the Constitutional Court was rendered invalid again, due to the lack of quorum at the High Court.
At the moment, the High Court tribunal has a total of 9 judges out of the total 19 that are needed.
In addition, the law requires at least 10 judges in order to legitimize the special meeting needed to appoint additional members at the Constitutional Court.
Under these circumstances, the High Court has asked the High Judicial Council, to help them fill in the current vacancies so that the procedure to appoint new judges at the Constitutional Court can begin.
These are the 7 judges currently appointed at the Constitutional Court: Elsa Toska, Marsida Xhaferllari, Fiona Papajorgji, Sonila Bejtja, Altin Binaj and Perparim Kalo.
However, judges Binaj and Kalo are currently nearing the end of their term, meaning that they will soon leave the Constitutional with a total of 5 judges.
In order to be considered legitimate, verdicts of the Constitutional Court – which needs at least a total of 9 judges to process a case – need at least 5 votes in their favor. If this quorum isn’t reached, a verdict can’t acquire constitutional agency.
The current hiatus at the Constitutional coincides with the need for this court to issue a judgment on one of the most talked-about cases of the year – president Meta’s impeachment.
The next court hearing for this case is planned for February 1st.
