Constitutional Court to Judge Constitutionality of First Referendum Question

Kosice, September 21 (TASR) – The Constitutional Court will decide whether the first referendum question, which concerns the government’s resignation, is constitutional.

At a non-public session of its plenum on Wednesday, the court accepted President Zuzana Caputova’s motion regarding this matter in its entirety for further proceedings.

The court will decide whether the referendum that the president will declare will have one or two questions. It has 60 days to issue its ruling on the matter, beginning as of September 13.

After consulting several constitutional lawyers, Caputova considers the question of whether people agree that the government should resign without delay to be questionable from the point of view of constitutionality. “If the Constitutional Court finds the question to be in order, I’ll announce a referendum with both questions,” she said.

The question that will definitely appear in the plebiscite will ask the public whether it agrees that an early termination of the parliamentary electoral term can be carried out via a referendum or a resolution of Parliament. In her opinion, this is in line with the Constitution.

Representatives of the opposition Smer-SD party delivered a referendum petition signed by 406,039 people to the Presidential Palace in late August. Both the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition would like to trigger a snap general election via the referendum.