Macedonia's Constitutional Court

Macedonia's Constitutional Court voted by seven to two on Wednesday against an initiative that called for a assessment of the constitutionality and legality of parliament's decision on July 30 to call for a referendum on the Greek-Macedonian "name" deal.

Due to insufficient political will in the country's gridlocked parliament, Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, will probably not get the extension it seeks to the 18-month deadline to raise charges, which in most cases expires in June and July.

Legal and political experts in Macedonia warn that if the Special Prosecution, SJO, is forced to stop raising new indictments in June 2017, as the original deadline predicts, Macedonia's longstanding crisis  will go back to square one.

Without the prospect for justice being done for many alleged wrongdoings, they say the crisis will only worsen.

Macedonia's Constitutional Court could potentially put the December 11 general election date on hold if it upholds a motion submitted on Tuesday by a small ethnic Albanian party.

The Uniteti party, which has no seats in parliaiment, says the larger number of registered voters in one of the six electoral districts renders the election unfair and thus illegal.

In a closed session on Wednesday, Macedonia's Constitutional Court approved the annulling of a provision in the law which had previously barred the president from pardoning alleged election-riggers. 

Macedonia's Constitutional Court has rejected a challenge to the changed law on terminations, adopted in September 2013, saying the changes do not prohibit abortion but only regulate the procedures.
 
Several NGOs had submitted complaints to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the new requirements put undue physical, administrative and time-related pressure on pregnant women.