Monitor: Matovic: Coalition's Proposals for Referendum Underhanded

(TA3,'V politike', 17 May) Speaking on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday, MP and leader of the opposition 'Slovakia' party Igor Matovic stated that he considers the coalition's proposal to introduce the possibility of shortening the electoral term by referendum to be underhanded. Matovic pointed out that the 'Slovakia' party also had such a proposal in Parliament during this electoral term, but the coalition parties didn't support it. He believes that the coalition now wants to use this change to pave the way for a return to power after the next parliamentary election. "Suddenly, they realised that they've plundered the country, failed to fulfil any of their campaign promises, and will likely lose the election, so they want to pave the way to get back into power. We certainly won't be helping the mafia get back into power," stressed Matovic. MEP and chairman of the extra-parliamentary Republic party Milan Uhrik supports introducing the option to shorten the electoral term via referendum. In this context, he also spoke about the need to change the quorum required for referendum results to be valid. "The 50-percent quorum is proving to be highly ineffective," he stated. The politicians also commented on the July referendum, which was initiated by a petition of the extra-parliamentary Democrats party. According to Matovic, President Peter Pellegrini "rightfully crossed out" the question regarding the demand to shorten the electoral term. "We were telling the Democrats from the very beginning to be careful, that the question about the early election is unconstitutional," he noted. Uhrik considers this referendum to be a waste of money. In his view, the two questions regarding the scrapping of the so-called lifetime annuity and the restoration of the Special Prosecutor's Office (USP) and the National Crime Agency (NAKA) aren't worthy of a nationwide referendum. am