Skopje, 7 October 2024 (MIA) -- The Constitutional Court is set to make Wednesday its final decision on the constitutionality on the 'Balancer' program — designed to promote ethnic diversity through affirmative action in hiring governmental workers but which gave rise to "fraud, influence peddling, corruption and clientelism," according to the petitioners.

The motion claiming abuse of the 'Balancer' was filed by former members of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption.

After it accepted the motion, the Constitutional Court issued a temporary order to freeze some legal clauses until it decided if they were constitutional.

On Sept. 18, the Constitutional Court was considering whether listing one's ethnic community as required in government job applications was discriminatory.

It was also debating whether the 'Balancer' violated principles of professionalism and competence as well as the constitutional right to a free choice of profession and work.

The legal clauses the court decided to temporarily freeze were parts of Article 19 on "belonging to a community" of the Law on Public Sector Employees; parts of Article 36 on "belonging to a community" of the Law on Civil Servants, and parts of Article 2 and Article 3 on "belonging to a community" of the official rulebook on public job announcements.

Determining the constitutionality of the clauses is on the agenda of the Constitutional Court's 27th session scheduled for Oct. 9. mr/