merit-based appointments and cross-checks
Constitutional Appointments Commission
Organise public merit-based processes for Candeia’s independent offices, verifying requirements, conflicts and integrity before the appointments provided for by the Constitution.
Pre-Foundation · permanent institution not installedConstitutional Proposal · reference text · not promulgated
Why it exists
The Commission is designed to prevent independent offices from being filled solely for political convenience or through informal nomination. It qualifies candidates and makes merit and integrity criteria verifiable.
How it prevents capture in appointments
Organise public merit-based selection processes, verify requirements, incompatibilities, diversity of experience and integrity, and draw up lists when the Constitution requires them.
Conduct public calls and merit-and-integrity assessments. Verify requirements and conflicts before constitutional lists are drawn up. Prepare lists of qualified candidates without taking over the final decision of the constitutionally competent appointing authority.
9 members: 2 nominated by the National Council of Justice; 2 elected by the Assembly by a three-fifths majority; 1 chosen by the Ombudsman; 1 by the Court of Audit; 1 by the Data Protection and Digital Rights Authority; and 2 selected by public lot from among qualified candidates.
The appointment sources are distributed so that no single source can command a majority. Criteria, scores, disqualifications, interviews and reasons must be public to the extent compatible with data protection and integrity.
Single, staggered six-year terms.
No appointment source may control a majority; party leadership, elective office, a Ministry, a political position of trust, leadership of a critical provider and campaign functions are incompatible.
Its own technical secretariat, or a neutrally shared one, an independent budget and autonomy to commission specialised assessment without depending on the authority that will make the final appointment.
Only for serious grounds exhaustively specified by the Constitution, by decision of 6 of the 9 members of the Constitutional Court after charges brought by persons entitled to do so under Art. 255.
Transparency of criteria and decisions, data protection, judicial review, the anti-deadlock rules of Art. 235 and the periodic external evaluation applicable to independent institutions.
Public calls, criteria, scores, interviews, lists, reasons, disqualifications, budget and periodic reports once the institution is installed.
It qualifies candidates and forms lists; it does not directly choose permanent office-holders except where the Constitution expressly provides otherwise. It cannot turn technical assessment into political appointment power.
What it does in practice
- Conduct public calls and merit-and-integrity assessments.
- Verify requirements and conflicts before constitutional lists are drawn up.
- Prepare lists of qualified candidates without taking over the final decision of the constitutionally competent appointing authority.
What it does not decide
It qualifies candidates and forms lists; it does not directly choose permanent office-holders except where the Constitution expressly provides otherwise. Technical assessment cannot become political appointment power.