CEC: Only wording of referendum question rejected, but not Putin’s third term

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Experts of Russia’s Central Election Commission have decided on impossibility of holding a referendum on the third presidential term only in the wording proposed by the initiative group from South Ossetia: “Do you agree that one and the same person cannot occupy the post of the Russian president for more than two terms?”. The Central Election Commission examined the initiative and found out that some articles in the Constitution repeat the sentence proposed to the referendum, but it contradicts with some other articles. Thus, the constitution as the supreme law does not to be confirmed. So, a formal occasion was used for rejection of the initiative, complexity of wording.

A referendum on changing constitutional norms is theoretically possible, however, bad wording let down the initiators of such a referendum from South Ossetia, Central Election Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov has provided such explanation on the CEC decision, Vesti.ru reports. Today’s resolution of the Central Election Commission will be sent to Russia’s regions, where it will be examined and, possibly, new referendum initiatives will appear. Veshnyakov adds that “it is theoretically possible in other wording,” although “some experts have another point of view: it is inadmissible to put for referendum constitutional amendments.”