Skopje, 18 September 2024 (MIA) - The Constitutional Court issued Wednesday an interim measure to put on hold provisions from the law on public sector employees, law on administrative servants, the rulebook on mandatory elements in a call for public sector employments related to ethnicity until a final decision by the court.

The State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) challenged the provisions and the court considered the Commission's allegations as founded.

SPCP alleged that the so-called "balancer", a program designed to promote ethnic diversity through affirmative action in hiring governmental workers, gave rise to fraud, influence peddling, corruption and clientelism.

"The Court also expanded the suspicions on the unconstitutionality and unlawfulness of other provisions and initiated a procedure on provisions from the same laws and bylaws arising from them," said Constitutional Court spokeswoman Hristina Belovska.

At this stage, she added, the Constitutional Court expresses its doubts that the fundamental freedoms and human rights recognized in international law and established in our Constitution are jeopardized - free expression of national affiliation, proper and just representation of citizens belonging to all communities in state authorities and other public institutions at all levels - which serve as fundamental values of the country's constitutional-legal order.

"The Court expresses its doubts that the provisions bring into question the guaranteed principle of equality before the Constitution established in Article 9, the constitutional guarantee that every job is available to anyone under equal terms established in Article 32, as well as Article 54, which stipulates that restriction of freedoms and rights cannot be discriminatory by way of gender, race, color of skin, language, religion, natonal or social background, property or societal position," noted Belovska.

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