The Supreme Council of Magistrates is an extremely politicized body and it couldn’t have voted in a different way, lawmaker of the Communist Party (PCRM) Sergiu Sarbu said, commenting on the Council’s attempt to elect the president of the Supreme Court of Justice on September 13, Info-Prim Neo reports. “It is clear that it is a political vote. The Supreme Council of Magistrates has become an extremely politicized body long ago. We know well that the majority now belongs not to the magistrates, but to full professors named by Parliament according to political criteria,” said Sergiu Sarbu. On September 13, the Council failed to elect the new Supreme Court of Justice president as none of the two candidates polled the necessary number of votes. Two of the nine members of the Council attending voted for the acting president of the Supreme Court of Justice Raisa Botezatu, while former president Ion Muruianu obtained no vote. The post of president of the Supreme Court of Justice fell vacant after Ion Muruianu was dismissed by Parliament on July 5, 2011. The decision was taken by the vote of 53 MPs of the Alliance for European Integration, after the Supreme Council of Magistrates voted in favor of discharging the magistrate the same day. According to national and international press reports, during the eight-year rule of the PCRM the international organizations, national political opposition and civil society pointed to serious problems in the functioning of the legal system of Moldova, which is one of the incontestable ‘leaders’ by the number convictions at the European Court of Human Rights.