The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by lawyer Ali Hussain alleging that the referendum procedures to merge the presidential and parliamentary elections are unconstitutional.

Supreme Court Registrar Rauda Haidar decided to reject the case filed by the former Kendhoo MP. Her decision said the case was inadmissible on the grounds on which it was based.

Ali Hussain 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.

However, the Registrar said the 15-day deadline given by the Constitution to decide on a bill should only be applied if the President decides not to ratify it.

According to the Registrar, the bill in question is a category of bill that cannot be ratified except by a public referendum. So she concluded that the bill does not have to be ratified within 15 days.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court earlier accepted a constitutional case seeking to stop the April 4 referendum, submitted by lawyers Ibrahim Shiyam and Aik Ahmed Easa on March 17.

The case was registered in the Supreme Court on March 23. 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.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on the case for 10:15 am tomorrow (March 26).