Richter Announces Postponement of Constitution Change Vote to September

Bratislava, 17 June (TASR) - Three parliamentary caucuses will submit a motion to postpone the vote on the government's amendment to the Constitution until September, head of the Smer-SD caucus Jan Richter told a press conference on Tuesday, adding that the amendment currently has the support of 89 MPs, but 90 votes are needed. "We were unpleasantly surprised by developments within KDH, as only nine of the 11 members of the parliamentary caucus are ready to vote," said Richter, adding that Smer-SD assumed that the opposition KDH would be ready to support the proposal fully. "We are patient and are interested in continuing to seek overlaps and to continue negotiations further," stated Richter. Smer-SD is also ready to negotiate support with coalition MP Jan Ferencak (Voice-SD), who announced his intention to abstain in the vote. According to Richter, his proposal to increase the quorum for adopting constitutional amendments and constitutional laws from 90 to 100 votes from MPs can't be carried out overnight. The idea calls for debate, he emphasised. am/df