Latvian voters line up to dissolve parliament

RIGA- Today is the last day for voters to sign a petition for Constitutional amendments, allowing voters the right to dissolve the Latvian Parliament (Saeima). Long lines have been a constant at many local schools and voting places these last few days, and support for this amendment among citizens is strong.

Yesterday needing only 10% more votes, The Baltic Times asked voters in line what their views were on the situation.

 "I'm really tired of these acts, that's why I went to sign the petition, and if there will be a referendum, then I'll take part in that for sure. Maybe at some point the politicians will see that the citizens aren't a bunch of idiots." said one voter.  

As reported by LETA news service, from March 12 to April 8, 134,966 citizens had signed for the bill "Amendments to the Constitution", according to provisional data from the Central Election Commission (CVK).

At least 149,064 votes are needed for the bill on to be forwarded to the Saeima by President Zatlers for consideration. If Saeima does not accept the bill, a referendum will need to be organized to adopt the amendments in the existing law.

The amendments propose altering Paragraphs 78 and 79 of the Constitution making it so that one-tenth of the voters could propose dissolving Saeima.