Record Number Apply to Become Macedonia's Chief Prosecutor

A record number of 23 lawyers, university law professors, judges and notaries have applied to Macedonia's parliament for the key post of chief prosecutor - which was vacated in August.

After a cumbersome procedure, which involves the Prosecutors' Council issuing opinions on each of the candidates within 30 days, the new centre-left government will pick one of the approved candidates and propose it to parliament for adoption.

"This is the first time that so many candidates appled. But, despite the cumbersome task at hand, we will try to observe the deadlines," the head of the Prosecutors' Council, Kole Steriev, said.

The previous chief prosecutor, Marko Zvrlevski, was the only candidate for the post when he was elected back in 2013.

Some experts see no problem in the large number of applicants, hoping that the unprecedented number may result in the best person being chosen.

It should be a person with "personal integrity, a professional, a person who will not succumb to any pressures and who will do his job," a former Macedonian judge in the human rights court in Strasbourg, Margarita Caca Nikolovska, said.

Zvrlevski was dismissed in August. He was accused of being too close to former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his then ruling VMRO DPMNE party.

He was acccused also of taking a very selective approach to dealing with the many corruption accusations made against Gruevski's government.

Zvrlevski's dismissal followed the change in power in May, when the Social Democrats, SDSM, took over the government, following a lengthy political crisis.

Judging by the serious shortcomings of the prosecution's and judiciary's work in the past, including the selective application of justice noted in...