A referendum on political reform was held in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

on 18 September 2010, following a successful petition started as a civil activity along with foundation of the

Freedom and Solidarity Freedom and Solidarity (, SaS), also called Saska, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Slovakia. Established in 2009,. SaS was founded by economist Richard Sulík, who designed Slovakia's flat tax system. It generally hol ...

(SaS). The referendum failed to meet the turnout threshold required under the

Constitution of Slovakia The Constitution of Slovakia, officially the Constitution of the Slovak Republic (), is the current constitution of Slovakia. It was passed by the Slovak National Council on 1 September 1992 and signed on 3 September 1992 in the Knights Hall of t ...

, with only 22.8% of the electorate voting: far below the 50% required. Large majorities voted in favour of all six proposals, with between 70% and 95% supporting each proposal.

Background

The referendum was the initiative of SaS's leaders, who had promoted the campaign as "Referendum 2009". Its organizers aimed to hold the referendum at the same time as the first election SaS was contesting, the June 2009 European parliament election. A second target period was late May, during municipal elections in Slovakia. However, the referendum was ultimately held the following year.

Referendum

Then Slovak president

Ivan Gašparovič Ivan Gašparovič (; ; born 27 March 1941) is a Slovakia, Slovak politician and lawyer who was the third president of Slovakia from 2004 to 2014. He was also the first and currently the only Slovak president to be re-elected. Biography Ivan Ga� ...

set the date for the referendum after SaS collected 401,126 signatures for it, 386,000 of which were found to be valid. The referendum asked six questions: * to abolish the

television licence A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts or the possession of a television set. In some countries, a licence is also required to own a radio or rece ...

(question 1); * to limit

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

(question 2); * to lower the number of MPs from 150 to 100 by 2014 (question 3); * to set a maximum price for limousines used by the government at €40,000 (question 4); * to introduce

electronic voting Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or handle casting and counting ballots including voting time. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone '' electronic voting machines'' (also ...

via the internet (question 5); and * to change the Press Code by removing politicians' automatic

right of reply Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical t ...

(question 6). The latter four demands had already been included in the new coalition agreement of the government formed after the 2010 parliamentary election, which included SaS.

Results

All six proposals were approved by a supermajority of those who voted; however, a turnout of 50% or more was required for the referendum to be valid. Only 22.8% of voters cast a ballot for the referendum, rendering it invalid. Only one referendum in Slovak history has ever crossed the threshold: the 2003 vote on EU membership (51.5% turnout).

References

External links

Freedom and Solidarity's campaign website for the referendum (archived)
{{Slovak elections

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

Freedom and Solidarity Referendums in Slovakia Reform in Slovakia September 2010 in Europe