7

The Christian Socialists and a group called Taxpayers Won't Give Up claim the president committed a mistake on a technicality.

Pahor decided to shorten the 30-day window he had to find a prime minister-designate and then gave parliament 14 days to find a candidate, before he dissolved parliament and called an early election.

The petitioners claim the president should have dissolved parliament the moment he rescinded his right to nominate a PM-designate, since the Constitution gives parliament the chance to have a go only if the president's candidate is rejected.

The dissolution of parliament and the election date are "wrong". "It is worrying if such mistakes are committed at the highest level," party president Andrej Magajna told reporters.

Several other groups have announced challenges against election dates, including the Solidarity party, which claims holding the election in the middle of summer, when many people are on holiday, violated fundamental human rights.

These challenges are unprecedented and it is as yet unclear how the Constitutional Court will react or whether it can actually stay implementation of the election decree.