Two constitutional cases has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking to stop the April 4 referendum to merge the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Two constitutional cases were filed in the Supreme Court today (March 17). The case to stop the referendum was filed by lawyers Ibrahim Shiyam and Aik Ahmed Easa.
The case alleges that the question in the presidential decree and the Elections Commission's (EC) announcement go against the constitution.
"The question of whether to approve the entire bill is designed to obscure the real change to the constitution. Since this question is not designed to meet the requirements of Article 262(b) of the constitution, the Supreme Court must declare that the referendum scheduled for April 4 should not be held,” the case documents read.
Lawyers Ali Hussain and Aik Ahmed Easa.
The question for the referendum is whether the people want to ratify the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. There is no mention of whether the people approve of what the amendment is for.
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The bill aims to hold the 2028 presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously and to shorten the current parliament's term by six months.
Former Chief Justice Dr Ahmed Abdullah and former Supreme Court Justice Husnu Suood have also said the question is unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the second case, involving the President’s Office, was filed by former MP Ali Hussain.
He asked the Supreme Court to declare that the Eighth Amendment Bill to the Constitution was invalid and that a referendum was in violation of Article 264 of the Constitution.
"The term of the Parliament is five years. There is no change in the term, even with the new bill. Even if the term of the current parliament is shortened, the next parliament will be sworn in for five years," Ali Hussain said.
The bill was sent to the President's Office on February 11. Even though the law requires bills to be ratified within 15 days, the President did not do so, he alleged.
"Now the 15-day period has ended. The deadline for ratification of the constitutional amendment is 15 days; that deadline has passed, and this case is to declare the bill invalid as the constitutional amendment was not ratified within 15 days," he said.
There can be no referendum on a bill that has been invalidated, he said.
The referendum will be held on April 4, along with the local council elections. A total of 294,937 people are eligible to vote.
