Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Seven-judge Supreme Court plan presented to Parliament

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Tuesday, 15 February 2011 21:31 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – President Thein Sein on Tuesday submitted the names of seven judges to serve on the Supreme Court during a joint session of the Burmese Parliament.

A joint session of Parliament in session in
Naypyidaw. (Photo:AFP)
The nomination will be voted on Wednesday, a lawmaker told Mizzima.

The parliamentary session lasted about ten minutes.

In other business, a seven-member Union Election Commission (UEC) plan was approved by members of Parliament on Tuesday without objection.

However, the names of the nominees have still not yet been submitted to Parliament.

A secretary of the UEC will be specifically assigned and not included in the nominee list, in was announced.

According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court can be constituted with a minimum of seven members and a maximum of 11, including the chief justice. The judges of the Supreme Court will be appointed by the president in consultation with the chief justice. The Supreme Court is the highest court of the Union.

Since the Parliament first met on January 31, it  has approved the appointments of president, two vice presidents, government ministries and ministers, the number of judges in the Constitutional Court, ministries in local governments of states and regions and the Union Election Commission.

The Union Government Law stipulates the the President shall inform the Parliament of the names of union cabinet ministers who will be appointed by Parliament with their concerned ministry assigned to them.

However, many MPs have noted that the names of the potential ministers or appointees are frequently withheld rather than dealt with in a timely fashion.

‘All of this businesses can be done in a single day by announcing the names of the members of these constitutional bodies along with these bodies’, said one opposition-member MP. ‘But now they are playing tricks which suggests they have some differences among themselves’, he said.

According to the Union Government Law, there are 13 ‘Union Level’ appointees such as the chief justice and the judges of the Supreme Court, the chairman and members of UEC, and the chairman of Constitutional Court.

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