The Council of State, Greece’s supreme court struck down a request filed by two citizens that asked for the cancellation of Sunday’s referendum. The court heard the arguments in favor and against the request earlier in the day. The 21 members of the court then convened to decided to reject it. Nikos Sakellariou, the vice-president of the Council of State, made the announcement. Spiros Nickolaou, a lawyer and Dimitris Manaou, an engineer, had filed a lawsuit asking for the cancellation of the referendum, calling the decision by the ministerial council and the Presidnetial Decree unconstitutional and illegal. On the other hand a number of lawyers who are in favor of the referendum taking place had counter-argued that the question and terms of the referendum are clear to the people. The lawyers as well as representatives of the Greek state argued that this is not an issue for the supreme court because this is a government ratified decision and the responsible authority for this matter is the electoral court. Nikolaou noted that the electoral court would make the decision after the referendum and argued that the President’s Decree for the referendum is beyond the constitution as therefore there is no legal framework for the referendum.
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