The Constitutional Court in Bucharest decided this weekend that changes to a referendum law, pushed by the opposition Social Democrats (PSD), would come into force three days after their publication in the Official Gazette.

That means that the May 19 referendum on the suspension of the President will follow the new rules - an issue that has been in limbo for several days as nobody knew the exact constitutional timing for the application the new regulation.

The changed Referendum Law received the approval of interim President Nicolae Vacaroiu on Saturday.

The new rules say a head of state may be dismissed with 50% plus one of participants in the poll. Before the change, the law said a president could be dismissed only if 50% plus one of the total number of listed voters voted against him.

A referendum will take place on May 19 when Romanians are invited to have their say whether to remove suspended President Traian Basescu from office or not. Basescu was suspended with 322 votes from a total of 410 in the Parliament in April on charges that the breached the Constitution, despite the Constitutional Court saying that the charges were unfounded.