A referendum on political reform was held in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), 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 s ...

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

Freedom and Solidarity Freedom and Solidarity ( sk, Sloboda a solidarita, SaS) is a liberal political party in Slovakia. Established in 2009, SaS is led by its founder and economist Richard Sulík, who designed Slovakia's flat tax system. It generally holds libertaria ...

(SaS), which later became the third-largest party in the National Council. 401,126 signatures were collected, with 386,000 found valid. The referendum failed to meet the turnout threshold required under the

Constitution of Slovakia A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, 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.

Referendum

The referendum asked six questions, which had been promoted collectively by SaS as 'Referendum 2009' under their plan to hold such a referendum in 2009: * 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 where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...

(question 1); * to limit

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians such as president, vice president, governor, lieutenant governor, member of parliament, member of legislative assembly, member of legislative council, s ...

(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 (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone ''electronic voting machines'' ( ...

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

right of reply The right of reply or right of correction generally means the right to defend oneself against public criticism in the same venue where it was published. In some countries, such as Brazil, it is a legal or even constitutional right. In other countrie ...

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

Election

A turnout of 50% or more was required for the referendum to be valid. Only one referendum in Slovak history has ever crossed this threshold: the 2003 vote on EU membership (51.5% turnout).

Results

External links

*
Freedom and Solidarity's campaign website for the referendum

References

Referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

Freedom and Solidarity Referendums in Slovakia Reform in Slovakia September 2010 events in Europe {{Slovakia-election-stub