Referring to insider information from the party Požareport, reported that the head of the SDS Party, elected in the electoral unit 4, district Grosuplje, would forgo his MP mandate.
In such cases the law prescribes by-elections for his replacement. If he renounced his mandate after more than six months after elections, the empty place would be taken by the next on the list – Božo Predalič in this case.

SDS is preparing for a post election analysis
The vice president of the SDS Party Zvonko Černač said in his first reaction to the result of the parallel voting which placed their party at the second place after the Sunday parliamentary snap elections that the elections were not fair, and that the result was not legitimate. He added that the government based on such election results would not be legitimate either, and announced that the members of parliament from the SDS Party would not accept any function in the National Assembly, and would decide selectively on their participation at the meetings.

Cerar: "The citizens didn't vote for them so that they would demolish the state"
The winner of the elections, and the most likely future mandatary, the president of the SMC Party Miro Cerar reacted to the claims of the SDS Party in the Odmevi Show: "The citizens didn't vote for them so that they would demolish the state, but to cooperate – as opposition, or in another manner – at the state politics."

He stressed that we do not wish that kind of political culture. "The elections were completely legitimate, the voters participated and voted, the legal procedures were obeyed, and the SDS Party itself participated for the duration in the campaign, and at elections. The claim of illegitimacy leads towards discord, and the only permissible response is to declare its complete unacceptability," he emphasized.

He added that he hoped such rhetoric would soon ease off, and that SDS Party would reconsider, and decide to perform its duty as authorized by the citizens.

The law only defines a conviction during the term
Will Janez Janša, who has been convicted and has been serving his two-year prison sentence in Patria case at Dob Prison since June 20, take one of the 21 seats in the Parliament, assigned to the SDS Party according to election results? The law on members of parliaments in the first paragraph of the Article 9 defines that an MP's mandate terminates when he loses the voting right, becomes permanently incapable of performing the function, if he has been convicted to an unconditional sentence for a period above 6 months, if he continues to perform activities incompatible with the MP function for more than three months after his MP mandate was confirmed, or he starts performing an activity incompatible with the function of MP, if he resigns.

Yet the Article ends with the third paragraph directing that the MP's term is not terminated in case of the third item from the first paragraph of the article, if the National Assembly decides that he can perform the function of an MP. And the third item is the one speaking of the final judgment to unconditional prison sentence for a period longer than six months.
The Act on MPs gives the National Assembly the option not to confirm the controversial mandate, but it is also possible for Janša to perform the function of an MP.

The National Assembly can decide in favour of Janša's term as an MP
The National Assembly will confirm the mandates of the newly elected MPs at the first, constitutive session after the elections, presumably on August 1.

As far as Janez Janša's function as an MP is concerned, MMC has received an explanation from the National Assembly saying that the mandate-electoral commission is a working body in charge of establishing whether there are reasons for termination of the MPs mandate. If the commission establishes a reason, it informs the National Assembly. "According to law the MP's mandate is terminated due to a final judgment to unconditional prison sentence longer than six months. Yet the National Assembly can decide that he can continue to function as an MP – the decision is made by the majority of defined votes of the present MPs," they wrote.

The stipulation that the MPs mandate can continue in spite of a longer prison sentence has been a part of the act since 1992, writes Dnevnik newspaper. The members of parliament believed that such an option should be preserved in case they had to decide on a mandate of a colleague convicted due to a traffic accident; causing a traffic accident would not constitute a threat to state regulation, the newspaper adds.

Democracy – the voters knew, yet they still elected him
It is expected that Janša's mandate will be confirmed, and it is up to the MPs to take it away.

Tina Hacler
Translated by G. K.