Dili, 01 June 2026 (Media Democracia) – Group of candidates for the Public Defender’s Office Judicial Officer competition question irregularities in the selection process and ask the Superior Council to annul the published results. They consider that the process violated Article 30 of the Judicial Officer Statute.
According to candidate representative Gabriel Soares da Silva, Article 30 defines that anyone applying for the vacancy must go through three phases, document selection, written test, and oral test. These phases are to justify and thoroughly evaluate the candidates’ knowledge.
“Anyone applying for this vacancy must go through document selection, written test, and also an oral test, and only then is it determined who passes and who fails. The vacancy opened on October 14, 2025, document selection ended on January 15, 2026. In 2026, the process continued to the next phase. We detected a problem when ten (10) people who are currently working as temporary Judicial Officers also participated in the document selection and passed the written test.” said candidate Gabriel Soares, at Jardim 5 de Maiu, (29/05/26).
He stated that the 10 people currently working as temporary Judicial Officers passed the document selection and were approved in the written test, but in the final phase, those ten weren’t present for the written test, let alone the oral test. Because of this, they consider it a violation of the statute.
“This situation, we consider, violates Decree-Law 19/2012, April 25, especially Article 6 regarding the Judicial Officer Regime. They also contravened Article 30 and Article 17, which speaks about temporary officers. According to Article 17, temporary officers must work for one year only and undergo a performance evaluation, not be admitted directly into training. These temporary officers who served or contributed to the Public Defender’s Office for one year may receive a performance evaluation with a value, but there is no article stating they can be admitted to training without criteria.” he explained.
In the same place, candidate Elvino R.X das Neves argued that this vacancy is a public competition, not an internal competition. Therefore, temporary officers must follow the same rules as other candidates.
“Our demand is this: it would be better to completely annul the vacancy and reopen a new competition so that everyone can compete. Otherwise, in the future, those who lead the Public Defender’s Office institution could just bring in their own people. It means that those ten are like ghosts who suddenly appeared among others who sacrificed their will and effort to compete for this vacancy. We already submitted a complaint letter to the Superior Council of the Public Defender’s Office last week on the 18th, but until now the decision on the complaint is not based on law and does not protect the candidates’ rights.”
The candidates also call on the Minister of Justice, National Parliament Committee A, and the Prime Minister to intervene in this case to guarantee justice and transparency in access to public office.
Reporting: Trainee Julia
Photo: Trainee Julia