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President Hits Back: SaS Demonstrating Total Ignorance of Constitution
Tuesday 13 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, July 13 (TASR) - President Ivan Gasparovic is surprised to hear Freedom and Solidarity chairman Richard Sulik saying that he has done everything he could to scupper an SaS-instigated referendum by making sure that the date doesn't coincide with local elections in November, his office said in reaction later on Tuesday.
Sulik has demonstrated a total ignorance of the Slovak Constitution, said the president's spokesman Marek Trubac. "Had the petition committee known basic arithmetic they would have easily worked out the constitutional deadlines to which the president has to adhere when setting the date for a referendum," he said, adding that the referendum must take place no later than within 120 days of the submission and positive evaluation of the petition.
As the referendum instigator submitted the signed petition sheets on June 9, the referendum couldn't have been held any later than October 2. "It follows that the petition committee should have known when submitting the petition sheets that combining the referendum with the date of the local elections on November 27 wasn't feasible," said Trubac.
He added that Gasparovic has stated that such a plebiscite will be futile and that the consequences if it fails will be borne by its instigators.
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