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SaS: Referendum to Be Preceded by Get Out the Vote Campaign
Wednesday 18 August 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, August 18 (TASR) - A referendum on six social issues declared by President Ivan Gasparovic at the prompting of co-ruling Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) for September 18 will be preceded by a three-week campaign that is estimated to cost between €120,000 and €130,000, said Chairman of SaS and Parliament Richard Sulik at a news briefing on Wednesday.
Sulik is not surprised that SaS remains the only party backing the referendum, which allows people to weigh in on, among other things, scrapping licence fees for the use of television and radio and curbing lawmaker's and judge's immunity because it shows that politicians loathe to see people making decision about anything.
Chairman of Smer-SD and former premier Robert Fico, according to him, prevaricates on his stance on the €7 million-plus referendum by stating non-sequiturs, arguing that he is opposed to curbing immunity because it represents a witchhunt against the opposition and resists scrapping immunity of judges.
Immunity curtailment is also to be voted on next month in Parliament, but needs the support of 90 lawmakers as a constitutional amendment. If defeated, according to Sulik, SaS intends to appeal to voters during the campaign to divest lawmakers of that privilege. "I am confident that there will be a sufficient number of people to do so," he said. [Fifty percent of eligible voters are required to validate the referendum - ed. note.]
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