Who may propose the registration of an initiative?

Legal Regime governing Referenda (Law no. 15-A/98 of 3 April 1998, last amended by Organic Law no. 3/2017 of 18 July 2017)

Article 16: Holders of the right

Referenda may result from initiatives that are addressed to the Assembly of the Republic by Portuguese electors who number at least sixty thousand and are properly registered on the electoral roll in Portuguese territory, as well as by citizens referred to in Article 37(2) with regard to the matters provided for therein.

Article 17: Form

1 – Popular initiatives shall be submitted in writing, on paper or by electronic means, shall be addressed to the Assembly of the Republic, and shall contain the signatories’ identity details, to comprise the full name, identity card or citizen’s card number, electoral number and date of birth of each one.

2 – The Assembly of the Republic shall provide an electronic platform that makes it possible to submit popular initiatives and to receive the items referred to in the previous paragraph.

Article 19: Representation

1 – The initial part of the initiative must mention the identity details of the agents appointed by the group of citizens who subscribed it, which agents shall number at least twenty-five.

2 – For the purposes of liability and representation laid down by law, the agents referred to in the previous paragraph shall appoint an executive committee from among their number.

Legislative Initiative by Citizens (Law no. 17/2003 of 4 June 2003, last amended by Law no. 52/2017 of 13 July 2017)

Article 6. Requisites

1 ‐ The right of citizens to initiate legislation is exercised by means of the submission to the Assembly of the Republic of Member’s bills subscribed by at least twenty thousand registered electors.

2 ‐ The Member’s bills referred to in the previous paragraph shall be submitted to the President of the Assembly of the Republic in writing, on paper or by electronic means, shall be drawn up in the form of articles and must contain:

a) A name that briefly describes their main object;

b) A justification or explanatory statement, to include a summary description of the initiative, the legislative acts that are to be amended or are related to the initiative, the main consequences of its implementation and the grounds for it, especially the respective social, economic, financial and political reasons;

c) The identity details of all the proposers, on paper or by electronic means, depending on the format in which they are submitted, to comprise the full name, identity card or citizen’s card number, electoral number and date of birth of each subscribing citizen;

d) The identity details of the members who make up the committee representing the subscribing citizens, together with details of a domicile for the committee;

e) A list of the attached documents. [...]

Article 7: Representative committee

1 ‐ For the purposes provided for in the present Law, particularly in terms of responsibility and representation, the citizens who subscribed the initiative shall appoint a representative committee with a minimum of five and a maximum of ten members from among their number.

2 ‐ The committee shall be notified of all the acts regarding the legislative process derived from or linked to the initiative that has been submitted, and may take steps at the Assembly of the Republic that tend to ensure the good implementation of the provisions of the present Law.

A minimum of 60,000 signatures must be gathered for the Citizen's Initiative and 20,000 signatures would be needed for the Agenda Initiative. In both cases, the legislation stipulates that a representative committee should be appointed by citizens who signed the initiatives, but only for the purposes of representation. There is no requirement that these committees should be registered somewhere.