Constitutional Court rejects the initiative, the referendum to be held on Sept. 30

The Constitutional Court dismissed Wednesday an initiative assessing the constitutionality and legality of the decision on scheduling a referendum, passed by the Macedonian Parliament on 30 July 2018.

Seven constitutional court judges voted in favor of dismissing the initiative, which was endorsed by two judges.

The initiative was championed by the constitutional court judge, Elena Goseva, proposing a procedure be launched involving the decision to schedule a referendum and to put a timely measure in place halting all activities for a certain period of time.

According to her, the decision contains several legal shortcomings. The referendum question, she has said, is manipulative, the type of the referendum is vague, and also the full name of the Prespa Agreement is omitted. Goseva has noted that the referendum decision doesn’t contain four out of seven elements for a referendum. The question should be divided into three questions, the judge has said.

Darko Kostadinovski and Osman Kadriu, constitutional court judges proposed by the President Gjorge Ivanov, have a different position. They said the decision contains all the necessary elements calling initiatives for its dismissal ‘groundless’.

Also, judges Naser Ajdini, Vangelija Markudova, Sali Murati and Vladimir, including Constitutional Court President Nikola Ivanovski, said that no constitutional provisions have been breached.

The initiative to assess the constitutionality and legality of the referendum decision was filed by the left-wing political party Levica and the organization “World Macedonian Congress”.