Concerning stability of the law, the organisation of referendums should preferably be provided for by national Constitutions and laws enacted well in advance. At any event, ad hoc legislation for their holding should be avoided. The list of fundamental aspects of referendum law, which should not be open to amendment less than one year before a referendum, at least if they are set out in ordinary legislation, takes account of the specific nature of referendums by including rules on the procedural and substantive validity of texts put to a referendum and the effects of referendums. It also emphasises the need for rules on the franchise and electoral registers, and access to the public media for the proposal’s supporters and opponents. In addition, it must be understood in the light of the Venice Commission’s Interpretative Declaration on the Stability of the Electoral Law: in particular, the stability of referendum law cannot be invoked to maintain a situation contrary to the norms of Europe’s electoral heritage in the area of referendums or to prevent the implementation of recommendations by international organisations. Furthermore, given that it is unusual for the date of a referendum to be known a year or more in advance (whereas elections normally take place at set intervals), it is a matter not so much of prohibiting legislative amendments during the year preceding the vote as of prohibiting the application of such amendments during the year following their enactment, in case there are suspicions of manipulation (point II.3.b).