Democrats Collect Signatures to Call Referendum on Shortening Government's Term

Bratislava, 6 February (TASR) - The extra-parliamentary Democrats party has collected 350,000 signatures in support of calling a referendum on shortening the term in office of the current government of Robert Fico (Smer-SD), party leader Jaroslav Nad told a news conference on Friday. According to Nad, the aim of the referendum is an early termination of the current government's term, the restoration of the Special Prosecutor's Office and the National Crime Agency (NAKA), as well as the scrapping of a lifetime salary for Fico. "I'm positive that this referendum, once called, will be another, extremely important step towards Robert Fico's defeat," stated the leader of Democrats. Nad said that the aim is to collect several thousand more signatures by the end of February. "If anyone wants to speculate and disqualify some signatures, we want to make sure it won't help them and that we'll submit the required number of valid signatures," he stated. Given previous statements by President Peter Pellegrini, Democrats vice-chair Juraj Seliga expects that he won't turn to the Constitutional Court and will be fully cooperative. "Similarly, we expect that the respective authorities won't thwart a referendum in any way," he added. The party also announced that it will hold talks with its opposition partners with the aim of encouraging people to participate in the referendum. A referendum is announced by the president if at least 350,000 citizens request it via a petition. For a referendum to be quorate under the Slovak Constitution, more than 50 percent of eligible voters must participate, and a majority of those voters must support the proposal. ko/df