Skopje, 3 January 2025 (MIA) - Judge Aleksandar Kambovski is the new president of the Judicial Council of the Republic of North Macedonia.

The Council on Friday at a session elected Kambovski, a judge in the Bitola Appellate Court, with 13 votes in favor. He was elected a member of the Council in June 2024.

After being elected for president, Kambovski thanked the Council for the trust he has been entrusted with noting he will work to justify it.

"I sincerely hope together we will manage to meet the highest standards of professionalism, impartialness and the standards aimed at reinforcing the foundations of rule of law. I have no doubt that we will succeed if we all work together sharing the same goal - to have a sound, independent and transparent judiciary, which our citizens and our country need," stated Kambovski.

The Judicial Council will be run with intergrity, impartialness and utmost efforts to protect judicial independence of all judges in our country, Kambovski pledged speaking to reporters after his election.

The Judicial Council, he added, will fully support all judges who will abide by the laws and the Constitution. All those breaking the laws will be held accountable, I assure you, he stressed.

Asked for a comment on the announcements that Judicial Council members, elected in Parliament, will be dismissed, Kambovski said the Council in principle will not comment on remarks by individual politicians. "We're confident that Parliament, as a legislative body, will respect the Constitution and the laws."

Asked whether accountability will be sought for the judge Enver Bexheti after being designated by the US Department for State for significant corruption, Kambovski reiterated that "there is no place in the judicial system for judges that don't respect the laws, who work for personal interests or who have fallen inder influence."

Asked whether he will initiate a meeting with PM Hristijan Mickoski, like his predecessor Vesna Dameva, Kambovski said that there has to be cooperation with both the executive and the legislative branch.

"We are part of the governance system in this country of three branches. We have to help each other and control each other. Here, it is somehow difficult to apply check and balances between the three branches, but we hope we'll manage to achieve a higher standard of cooperation," he said.

The Judicial Council, a body tasked with electing, assessing and controling the work of judges, comprises of 15 members, including eight that are elected by judges, five by Parliament after two judges are nominated by the President. President of the Supreme Court and the justice minister are also members of the Council, but they don't have the right to vote.

Photo/video: MIA