MP Svrcek Proposes to Amend in Constitution Options for Snap Election

Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - MP Milos Svrcek (We Are Family) submitted to Parliament a proposal to amend the Constitution so that it is possible to shorten the electoral term of Parliament via a constitutional law as well as a referendum, TASR learnt on Friday. Among other things, he proposes that a referendum on a snap election should not take place in the first or last year of the electoral term. According to the proposal, in the event of a successful referendum, the parliamentary chair should announce a parliamentary election within seven days of announcing a valid result of the referendum. "The proposed amendment aims to respond to the ruling of the Constitutional Court of July 7, 2021 on the constitutionality of the subject of the referendum," the author said in the explanatory report. The MP proposes that the changes take effect on March 1, 2024. The opposition and trade unionists collected 600,000 signatures last year to initiate a referendum on an early election. In the case of the petition, President Zuzana Caputova approached the Constitutional Court, which decided in July 2021 that the proposed referendum question on a snap election was unconstitutional. Caputova said in response that she would call a referendum on an early election if Parliament decided to change the Constitution and subsequently adopted a resolution requesting its holding. am/mcs