10,000 signatures collected for referendum on granting citizenship to all non-citizens

RIGA - Already 10,250 signatures have been collected for staging a referendum on granting Latvian citizenship to all non-citizens of Latvia, as movement "For Equal Rights" representative Andrejs Tolmacevs told LETA.

Gathering signatures will continue until Friday, and the signatures that will have been collected by then will be handed over to the Central Election Commission on August 30.

Tolmacovs said that 10 percent to 15 percent of those signing under the petition were Latvians.

Under the current procedure for initiation of referendums, if 10,000 signatures, verified by a notary public, are collected, the Central Election Commission has to organize the second round of the signature drive where 10 percent of voters' signatures has to be collected for staging a referendum.