The collection of signatures comes exactly one year after the beginning of the work of the Saeima, by the opposition parties Latvia First and For Stability!, as well as some unrepresented parties in the Saeima.
This collection of signatures on latvija.lv, as well as onsite, will be open for a year, and a tenth of the electorate, or nearly 155,000 signatures, must be obtained before a referendum can be held.
Whether the required number of signatures will be collected will depend on the interests of the electorate. Central Election Commission Secretary Ritvars Eglājs told Latvian Radio that the collection of signatures has been organized a few times so far, but the necessary amount of signatures has never been collected.
How much it costs the state to organize this collection of signatures, Eglājs could not say precisely, because most of the expenses are made up of the remuneration of people employed in the process, namely, municipalities should not only set up places where people can sign, but also the presence of employees for at least four hours a day seven days a week should be ensured.
