How many signatures are required to start the formal decision making stage of a direct democracy mechanism?

“Collecting 350,000 signatures of citizens on a petition that addresses an important question of public life mandates the president to call for a referendum. The legislative rules of the cabinet [government] stipulate that with 500 collected signatures, a group of citizens and legal entities may propose amendments to legislation introduced by a ministry and negotiate with the minister. On the other hand, an initiative that collects at least 100,000 signatures may end up being only formally acknowledged in the resolution of the national parliament, without any legal or policy implications.” (p. 153)

“The law on petitions serves as a general legal norm that sets conditions and requirements for a petition and its initiators, as well as obligations for public authorities. Other norms such as the law on referendum, standing order of the parliament or legislative rules of the cabinet, may specify additional conditions for specific types of initiatives.” (p. 157)

Erik L?štic, “If It Works, Fine, If Not, So What? Initiatives in Slovakia,” in Maija Set?l? and Theo Schiller, eds.: Citizens’ Initiatives in Europe: Procedures and Consequences of Agenda-Setting by Citizens. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Under the definitions provided in the glossary, the provisions of Art. 95(1) of the Constitution can be interpreted as both an optional referendum and a citizens’ initiative. The law implies that citizens draft the proposal that will be subject to a vote of the electorate (Art. 1(3), 1(4), 2, Referendum Law; Art. 1(1), 5(1), Petition Law).

CONSTITUTIONOF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

(Adopted 1992; lastamended 2006)

http://www.nrsr.sk/web/default.aspx?SectionId=124

Chapter5: Legislative Power

Part2: The Referendum

Article95

(1) Thereferendum is called by the President of the Slovak Republic if requested by a petitionsigned by a minimum of 350,000 citizens, or on the basis of a resolutionof the National Council of the Slovak Republic, within 30 days after thereceipt of the citizens' petition or the resolution of the National Council ofthe Slovak Republic.

RULES OF PROCEDURE OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL

(Adopted 1996;last amended 2005)

http://www.nrsr.sk/web/default.aspx?SectionId=124

Part 19: Petitions

Section 133

(1)Petitions delivered to the National Council, its committees, the Speaker andDeputy-Speakers of the National Council shall be submitted to the Chancellery,which shall keep records thereof. The Speaker of the National Council shallrefer the petition to a lead committee for consideration and opinions. Where apetition falls within the powers of more than one committee, the appropriatecommittee shall be responsible for coordination of all activities andsettlement thereof.

(2) Wherethe petition relates to matters outside the powers of the National Council, theChancellery shall refer it to the appropriate Ministry or another central stateadministration body.

(3) A petition signed by at least100,000 citizens shall be considered by the National Council.

REFERENDUM LAW

(Adopted 1992; last amended 2011)

http://www.minv.sk/?referendum

Article1

(3) Ak sa m?referendum vyhl?siť na z?klade pet?cie, postupuje sa pri v?kone petičn?ho pr?va podľa tohtoz?kona a podľa osobitn?ho z?kona. S pet?ciou, ktor? žiada vyhl?seniereferenda, sa občania obracaj? na prezidenta Slovenskej republiky.

(4) Ot?zka alebo ot?zky predložen? na rozhodnutie vreferende musia byť formulovan? tak, aby na ne bolo možn? jednoznačne odpovedať'?no' alebo 'nie'. Ot?zky nesm? byť navz?jom podmienen?.

Article 2

(1) Referendumsa vyhlasuje ozn?men?m v Zbierke z?konov Slovenskej republiky.

(2) V ozn?men?o vyhl?sen? referenda sa uvedie:

a)      na n?vrh koho sa referendum vyhlasuje a deň prijatia uznesenia N?rodnejrady Slovenskej republiky alebo deň prijatia pet?cie občanov,

b)      ak? ot?zka alebo ak? ot?zky sa občanom predkladaj? na rozhodnutie,

c)       lehota na vytvorenie okrskov na konanie referenda,

d)      lehota na vytvorenie org?nov pre referendum a na ich prv? zasadanie,

e)      deň konania referenda,

f)       deň vyhl?senia referenda.

(3) V pr?pade,že predmet referenda je obsiahlejš? a ot?zka predložen? na referendum potrebujebližšie vysvetlenie, uvedie sa toto v pr?lohe ot?zky; pr?loha je s?časťouozn?menia podľa odseku 2.

PETITIONLAW

(Adopted 1990; last amended 2010)

http://www.bratislava.sk/vismo/dokumenty2.asp?id_org=700000&id=11025535&p1=15346

Article 1

(1) Každ? m? pr?vo s?m alebo sin?mi obracať sa vo veciach verejn?ho alebo in?ho spoločn?ho z?ujmu na št?tneorg?ny a org?ny ?zemnej samospr?vy (ďalej len 'org?n verejnejspr?vy') so žiadosťami,n?vrhmi a sťažnosťami (ďalej len 'pet?cia').

Article 5 Podanie a vybavenie pet?cie

(1) Pet?cia mus? byť p?somn?,označen? slovom pet?cia a mus? obsahovať predmet verejn?ho alebo in?hospoločn?ho z?ujmu a ?daje uveden? v ? 4 ods. 1 o tom, kto ju pod?va; ak pet?ciupod?va petičn? v?bor, uved? sa ?daje uveden? v ? 4 ods. 1 o každom jehočlenovi. Osoba určen? na zastupovanie v styku s org?nom verejnej spr?vypodľa ? 3 ods. 3 alebo 4 pripoj? v pet?cii k menu, priezvisku a adrese trval?hopobytu aj podpis.

Referendum - 350,000; Citizens' Initiative - 350,000; Agenda Initiative - 100,000