Sanita Osipova elected President of the Constitutional Court
Today, on 14 October, the election of the Constitutional Court’s President was held at the Court’s hearing. The Justices elected from among themselves the current Vice-president of the Constitutional Court Sanita Osipova to the position of the Constitutional Court’s President.
Sanita Osipova, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia. Photo: Constitutional Court.
Sanita Osipova has been serving as the Justice of the Constitutional Court since 17 August 2011. On 16 May 2017, she was elected Vice-president of the Constitutional Court. On 6 May 2020, she was reelected to this position.
Information about the Constitutional Court’s President is available here.
The President of the Constitutional Court chairs the Court’s hearings, organises the Court’s work and represents the Constitutional Court.
Judges of the Constitutional Court. From left: Jānis Neimanis, Daiga Rezevska, Aldis Laviņš, Sanita Osipova, Gunārs Kusiņš, Artūrs Kučs. Photo: Constitutional Court.
Taking into account the epidemiological safety measures that are still established in the state to restrict the spread of Covid-19, the election of the Constitutional Court’s President was held remotely, in a videoconference regime. The closed voting was organised by using an electronic voting system.
Video recording of the Court’s hearing is available here [in Latvian]:
Pursuant to Para 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court, the President, within three days, will issue an order to convene the Court’s hearing to elect the Vice-president of Constitutional Court. A press release about this will be forwarded.
The election process
The election is held at an open court hearing. The candidates for the position of the Constitutional Court’s President are proposed during the hearing. Each candidate states, whether he or she agrees to being nominated.
The Constitutional Court’s President is elected for the term of three years by the Constitutional Court’s Justices from among themselves by secret ballot, with the absolute majority vote of the composition of the Court’s Justices.
Pursuant to the Constitutional Court Law, if several candidates for the position of the Constitutional Court’s President have been proposed and none of them gains the necessary number of votes during the first round of election, the vote with respect to all candidates is repeated. If nobody is elected then the election is continued, in each successive round of election excluding the candidate, who has received the smallest number of votes in the previous round, it is continued until one of the candidates receives the required number of votes.
If the necessary number of votes is not obtained in the last round of election or if only one candidate has been proposed and he or she does not gain the necessary number of votes to be elected, the candidates are proposed anew. The Justices, who had been nominated in the previous rounds of election and did not obtain the necessary number of votes, can be nominated repeatedly.