Over 170,000 Latvian signatures collected to amend Latvian pension law

May 16, 2008
In cooperation with BNS

RIGA - More than 170,000 signatures have been collected in support of draft amendments to Latvia's pension law, Latvia's chief election official told public radio Friday.

After counting signatures collected in Riga and Riga region the total number of signatures has come to 170,342, Latvia's Central Election Commission head Arnis Cimdars said.

The election authority has yet to add to the number of signatures collected in Latvia from April 16 to May 15 as well as the signatures gathered in foreign countries, and 12,161 signatures, certified by notaries, that were submitted to initiate the official signature collection campaign.

Concurrently, to obtain the final result, the Central Election Commission will verify the lists of signatures to check if all signers are eligible voters and whether somebody has not signed twice. The verification is expected to be finished in three weeks.

Preliminary results suggest that the number of signatures collected in the campaign has topped the necessary minimum by 20,000. It was necessary to collect at least 149,064 signatures of eligible voters or 10 percent of Latvia's voting population during last general election to initiate the legislative procedure.

The draft amendments to the pension law will now be submitted to the parliament.

The draft amendments to the pension law was submitted on Feb. 18 by the NGO Society for Other Politics and LawfulState and the Pensioners and Seniors Party, having collected signatures of 11,989 voters. The proposed amendments would raise minimum pensions to the level of Latvia's subsistence minimum.