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Úvodní stranaConstitutional Act No. 46/1990 Coll., that amends and supplements the Constitutional Act No. 100/1960 Coll., the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and the Constitutional Act No. 143/1968 Coll., on the Czechoslovak Federation
The Constitutional Act No. 46/1990 Coll. was adopted on 27 February 1990. It came into effect partly on the day of its promulgation on 1 March 1990 and partly on the day of elections. As its name implies, this Constitutional Act amended the Constitution of 1960 and the Constitutional Act on Czechoslovak Federation of 1968.
This brief Constitutional Act constitutes one of the key constitutional acts related to the change of the regime from the totalitarian to a democratic one because it prepared the ground for the first free parliamentary elections on the territory of Czechoslovakia after the Velvet revolution. The first free elections took place on 8 to 9 June 1990. Members of federal and national legislative bodies were elected. This Constitutional Act enshrined free parliamentary mandate in the first place. All the marks of imperative parliamentary mandate disappeared from the Constitution of 1960, particularly the right of voters to recall a deputy (art. 3 section 3 of the Constitution of 1960). This Constitutional Act also diminished the number of deputies of Federal Assembly from 200 to 150 and enshrined the incompatibility of the office of a deputy with holding the office of a judge, public prosecutor, state arbiter, military officer, police officer, correctional officer or the office of a deputy of other legislative body. The part of the oath of constitutional officials about loyalty to the cause of socialism disappeared; the constitutional officials promised only the loyalty to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (the reference to socialist regime disappeared from the name of the Czechoslovak state only in March 1990 on the basis of the Constitutional Act No. 81/1990 Coll.). The Constitutional Act No. 46/1990 Coll. reflected the change of the state regime when it enshrined that newly the legislative bodies did not exercise state powers in the name of working people but only in the name of people.
The Constitutional Act No. 46/1990 Coll. though enabled at the same time the erosion of the federation. It empowered the national councils of both republics to adopt their own constitutional acts regulating internal affairs of the republics. That allowed the national councils to adopt the constitutional acts that regulated the change of the names of the republics and their state symbols and that also enabled the realization of parliamentary elections in 1990 under the same rules as in case of the federation.