 At Wednesday's extraordinary parliament session MPs rejected President Milan Kucan's proposal to re-elect Ivan Bizjak as Slovenia's Ombudsman. Taking an open vote, only 53 out of 62 present MPs voted for Bizjak's re-election. Three voted against and six abstained.
At least two thirds of all MPs' votes (60) are required for the election of an ombudsman. The Slovene National Assembly holds a total of 90 seats. Bizjak's six-year term in office expires at the end of September. He is Slovenia's first ever Ombudsman. The three MPs who voted against Bizjak's candidacy are members of the government coalition Social Democratic Party (SDS). The six MPs who abstained come from the opposition National Party (2) and the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (3), and one from the government coalition SDS. While some additional MPs were actually present at the session they did not register for voting.
Speaking to the press after the vote, Bizjak said the main reason for non-election was the fact that a low number of MPs were present at the session. "It is hard to secure two-thirds majority if you only have two thirds of MPs present," he said. However, he found it hard to explain the low number of present MPs. He added that he had not yet considered the option of standing once again. Bizjak confirmed the information that he has not spoken to the SDS parliamentary faction prior to the vote. "I suggested a meeting with all factions even before I decided to run for the office again. And I had meetings with most of them, including the representatives of the ethnic minorities. However, there was no meeting with the SDS," Bizjak explained.
President Kucan has already expressed regret with the decision, even more so because a series of consultations with the heads of parliamentary factions showed Bizjak had their support. The support was also expressed during parliamentary debates of annual reports compiled by the Ombudsman about human rights violations in Slovenia, Kucan's office reported today. Kucan has already announced his plan to repeat the invitation to candidates to stand for the office.
Last March, 13 candidacies were filed for the post of Ombudsman, but Kucan put Bizjak's candidacy forward to the National Assembly after having held a series of consultations with the heads of parliamentary factions which showed, contrary to today's result, that Bizjak enjoyed support because of his solid performance over the past five years. In his application for re-election, Bizjak wrote, among other things, that as Slovenia's first ombudsman he had to build and establish the functionality of a new institution. It was his view that over the past five years the institution matured so as to be able to deal with any kind of problems because of which a Slovene citizens may seek the Ombudsman's help.
