The Top-Rated Judge Got Just Two Votes: The Appeals Court Will Be Run by Gerasimovski

The Judicial Council had two candidates for acting president of the Court of Appeals in Skopje. One is a judge with 197 points - the highest rating among judges. The other is a judge with long experience and a past inside the Judicial Council itself. The vote ended nine for the second and two for the first.

Zoran Gerasimovski takes over the post from Meri Dika, who was elected a constitutional judge. Tanja Mileva, the highest-rated candidate, got the backing of just two members.

Points versus „managerial ability”

Council member Suzana Joshevska-Anastasovska was the only one to put the question directly: the choice should follow objective criteria. „We should choose the judge who received the most points in the last evaluation, because that way we choose a judge whose professional quality has been objectively established,” was her argument.

The answer from the other side was that the post requires managerial ability and that the civil division needs experienced leadership. Dzeneta Bektovikj backed Gerasimovski on exactly that basis.

And this is the point where the entire evaluation system comes face to face with itself. The state has a mechanism in place that assigns every judge a number. Mileva has the highest one. If that number is not decisive when there are two candidates, then what is it for?

Not everyone was for Gerasimovski

The appointment did not pass without objections inside the Council either. Member Antoaneta Dimovska recalled that Gerasimovski left the Judicial Council at the period when things were hardest - referring to the time after the dismissal of former president Vesna Dameva. Other members highlighted his qualifications and his experience as a judge since 2005.

The post is temporary. A call will be published for a permanent president. But „temporary” in the Macedonian judiciary has a way of lasting, and acting president is a position carrying real power over how cases are assigned.

The same session, one more retirement

At the same session the Council also dealt with Vulnet Vinca, the judge of the Basic Court in Ohrid whose request for an extension of his term was rejected over a statement submitted past the deadline. Since Vinca was also president of the Basic Court in Struga, Nderim Polisi was appointed acting president there, chosen from among three candidates.

The Council also found that Tatjana Susuleska, a judge at the Court of Appeals in Bitola, had met the conditions for retirement, while Meri Dika's post is dormant following her election to the Constitutional Court.

One session, four personal fates in the judiciary and one open question: do the points mean anything at all once it comes to a vote?