Elections to Proceed on 13 July

12. 06. 2014

Elections to Proceed on 13 July


The Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected three constitutional challenges and cleared 13 July as the date of the early general election. It refrained from ruling on substance, instead sticking to a narrow interpretation of the Constitution.


Two challenges against the presidential decree dissolving parliament and calling an early election, filed by the Christian Socialists and MP Ivan Vogrin, were flatly thrown out on technicalities.

 

The third challenge, filed by a group of intellectuals and Mladina magazine, was rejected as unsubstantiated.

 

The petitioners around Mladina claimed holding the election in the summer would undermine voters' active and passive voting right, by making it difficult for voters to cast their votes and for non-parliamentary parties to get ready for the election.

The court unanimously held that the Constitution determines a term, 40-60 days, for the calling of a general election after parliament is dissolved, that is unequivocal and binding on the president of the republic.

 

The provision "cannot be interpreted but to mean that polling day must fall within the two-month term in the event the National Assembly is dissolved," the court's opinion reads.

 

 

Given that the Constitution is clear about that, the court "did not need to take a stance on whether determining polling day to be the second Sunday of July" curbs voting rights as claimed by the applicant.

Yet even if active and passive voting right were to be affected, this is admissible in circumstances determined by the Constitution.

 

"If the president were to call the election in autumn, he would have violated the provision of the Constitution," the court said.

 

The major parties as well as President Borut Pahor said the decision was expected, noting that July elections would cut short the period of interregnum and give Slovenia an operational government by autumn.

 

"The fact that we will get a government soon after the summer holiday raises the hope that we will finally be the masters of our own destiny," Pahor told reporters, saying this was the best option.

 

"The longer the election were to be postponed, the graver the consequences would be," Janez Janša, president of the opposition Democrats (SDS) told Catholic Radio Ognjišče.

 

The petitioners, on the other hand, expressed surprise and disappointment over the fact that the court refused to rule on the substance of the case.

 

"It is madness that the elections were called this way. Unfortunately the Constitutional Court legitimated this madness," said Uroš Lubej, co-president of the non-parliamentary Solidarity party, which joined the challenge spearheaded by Mladina.

 

Source: The Slovenia Times

Elections to Proceed on 13 July