President Steps In to Continue Progress on Code of Law

Following the successful passage of a constitutional ammendment to article 8.4 through the Dáil it was thought that a brick wall may have been hit. Tomás Ó Cealliagh (DLP BnhA), in his capacity as speaker, had forwarded the successful bill to the courtyard for and open public vote on its acceptance. Alex Garine, (LPT) then spotted a discrepency with such an action citing article thirteen of the constitution.

Article thirteen states, irrespective of the urgency of the bill or the public support for the bill, that;

"Referenda are held at the nearest general election."

This clause, which had caught Ó Ceallaigh unaware initial enraged him as he considered filing and ammendment bill to the Dáil. After finding a small get out clause which stated that;

"The President may call a referendum."

Which, due to the ambigous nature of the clause, can be interpretted as meaning that the President has the power to call a referendum regardless of the proximity of the referendum to the general election.

The president gave his assent to start the referendum earlier this morning and the voting has been allowed to recommence. The ammendment itself would allow for the easy implementation of a foreign judge with nations of which the Republic shares an appropriate treaty - the presence of a judge at the discussions about the new code of law is generally considered as essential by those involved.