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Gasparovic Announces SaS-initiated Referendum for September 18 (UPDATE)
Wednesday 07 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, July 7 (TASR) - President Ivan Gasparovic on Wednesday announced that a referendum made up of six questions will take place on September 18.
The six questions included in the referendum, which was initiated by new parliamentary party Freedom and Solidarity, (SaS) involve: abolishing television and radio licence fees, curbing MPs' immunity, downsizing the number of MPs from 150 to 100, setting the maximum purchasing price for cars used by Government officials, and helping to make voting in elections available via the internet. The sixth question concerns removing the right to reply from public officials (as included in the current Press Act of 2008).
The referendum will be valid only if more than a half of eligible voters go to the polls. If this happens, it will be the first successful referendum in Slovakia triggered by a public petition.
Four previous referendums failed, while one was marred. The only valid referendum was on whether Slovakia should join the European Union, but this was initiated by politicians.
The petition was delivered to Gasparovic's office on June 9. It included 30,053 sheets with 401,126 signatures. Of the total, 368,000 signatures were assessed as valid, with the remainder of 33,126 counted as void, most frequently due to missing, illegible or non-identifiable names.
According to law, at least 350,000 signatures are needed for a referendum to be announced.
The results of referendums are announced by the Slovak Parliament.
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