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SaS Representatives Turning In Petition Calling for Referendum
Wednesday 09 June 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, June 9 (TASR) - Representatives of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party handed over the petition containing 401,108 signatures calling for a referendum at a rally Wednesday in front of Presidential Palace that attracted a sparse crowd of about 100 people.
"I expect the President (Ivan Gasparovic) to proceed in accordance with the Constitution and not have any unpleasant surprises in store for us. We believe that he will turn to the Constitutional Court and launch the referendum within the specified time limits set by law," SaS Chairman Richard Sulik told TASR.
Personally, Sulik said he considers the referendum question regarding the restriction of the immunity enjoyed by MPs to be the most important. "It's that one thing that MPs will never abolish themselves". If the Constitutional Court rules that any of the referendum questions is unconstitutional, Sulik thinks it should be left out. "However, we formulated these questions in co-operation with a constitutional lawyer - hence, I'm not worried about any of them being excluded. And even if that happens, we're still going on with the remaining ones," said Sulik.
SaS is still interested in having the referendum joined with the municipal election, set for November 27. "We've chosen today as THE day with this specific purpose in mind. When you factor in all the time limits the President, state and Constitutional Court have, you'll get a (referendum) date somewhere around the end of November," claimed Sulik, adding that having the referendum a week earlier or two weeks after the election will be a huge waste of public resources. "I see absolutely no reason for them not launching the referendum on the election day," he said.
In all likelihood, the referendum will feature six questions. The first is aimed at abolishing the concessionary fees (for public broadcasting), the second deals with the aforementioned immunity issue and the third plans to reduce the number of MPs from 150 to 100. SaS formulates the fourth one with an eye toward establishing a maximum price for Government limousines, with the fifth set to introduce election voting via internet and the sixth designed to exempt public officials from the right for reply guaranteed by the Press Act.
More than 50 percent of all eligible voters need to take part in the plebiscite in order for the referendum to be successful. Slovakia has had numerous attempts at holding referendums quashed for a variety of reason, but mainly due to low turnout. The one exception was in May 2003 when Slovaks voted to accede to the European Union. However the required turnout was reached with less than an hour to go before the polls closed. The turnout was 52.15 percent even though 93.71 percent of voters were in favour of joining the EU.
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