President Zuzana Čaputová (source: TASR)
President Zuzana Čaputová will turn to the Constitutional Court to check whether the referendum on the snap election is in compliance with the Slovak Constitution.
“The president’s task is to make a decision that will secure the constitutionality of the referendum and that will not be accompanied with any constitutional doubts,” she said on May 12.
Questions about content
The petition, which asks the president to announce a referendum on a snap election, was delivered to the Presidential Palace on May 3. It was signed 585,000 signatures, which were secured, in part, by the opposition parties.
Of the so-far counted signatures, more than 524,000 are valid. This meets the first legal condition of announcing a referendum if at least 350,000 Slovak citizens sign a petition for this purpose.
Still, there are some questions concerning the referendum in question, Čaputová said, adding that not even lawyers and experts can agree on this one. Previous court practices also do not clarify what the constitutional bodies should do if the referendum is valid, or whether the MPs should approve the referendum result or not.
In the current state, someone could easily question the course of the referendum or its results at the court.
“I respect the petition right and consider it my constitutional duty to clear any doubts and make sure that the results would not be disputable,” Čaputová said.
President does not plan to hinder the referendum
Čaputová will address the court tomorrow, and the court will then have 60 days to decide.
If it decides that the referendum on shortening the current election term is in compliance with the constitution, she is ready to act quickly.
Čaputová has not fully used the 30-day period to decide on announcing the referendum (which will be suspended as soon as the Constitutional Court receives her motion) and she does not plan to wait until it is over.
She plans to announce the referendum straight away so that it can be held in September.
