Latvian Constitutional Court Gives Green Light to Language Referendum
By admin at 25 January, 2012, 4:51 pm
| Tweet |
|
On January 20, the Latvian Constitutional Court decided against suspending a referendum on the proposal to make Russian a second state language in Latvia, the Baltic News Service reported.
According to the Rīga-based newswire, the referendum will thus take place on February 18, 2012, as planned, Constitutional Court chairman Gunārs Kūtris said following the hearing.
The panel of Constitutional Court judges also decided to open a case over the constitutionality of the law regulating referendums in Latvia, BNS reported, but ruled against starting proceedings over the rest of the application filed by 30 lawmakers.
BNS also reported that the case has been opened over provisions of the referendum law under which a legislative initiative must be put to a referendum if the parliament has not passed it without amendments, but it is supported by at least one-tenth of eligible voters.
According to the newswire, Constitutional Court judge Aija Branta said that the court found the request to assess the constitutionality of these provisions grounded from the legal point of view.
The parliament is now expected to submit a written reply on the issue by March 20, 2012.
The panel of judges also decided to ask the Constitutional Court chairman to call a sitting on an issue that is not regulated by the Constitutional Court law, namely, the lawmakers’ request to suspend the referendum, BNS reported.
According to the newswire, Constitutional Court chairman Kūtris said that the judges came to two conclusions upon considering the lawmakers’ request to stop the referendum.
“First of all, the Constitutional Court takes a temporary measure, namely, suspends a process if it can lead to a failure to enforce a court ruling. The Constitutional Court assessed whether the possible court rulings [regarding the constitutionality of the referendum] could be enforced and concluded that they could be enforced in any circumstances and the applicants’ arguments are insufficient to conclude that this would be a senseless court action,” Kūtris was quoted as saying.
Secondly, BNS cited Kūtris as saying, the popular vote is already in process, this is a legislative process, and the people as a legislator will go to polls to express its position on the given initiative. The court would need very significant and substantial reasons to suspend this legislative process, but the Constitutional Court did not find such reasons, Kūtris said.
“Thus the court has opened a case on the particular draft law on referendum but at the same time decided against suspending the referendum as a legislative process,” Kūtris was quoted as saying.
According to BNS, in their application the lawmakers had also asked the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of President Andris Bērziņš’s decision of December 20, 2012, and the parliament presidium’s findings of December 20, 2012, by which the legislative initiative aimed at making Russian a state language in Latvia was sent to the parliament and put on its agenda. The Constitutional Court decided not to open proceedings over this request.
After the parliament rejected the bill, BNS reported, the Central Election Commission announced a referendum on the legislative initiative, slating it for February 18.
No comments yet.