Coalition targeting March 2015 spring hunting referendum date

The Coalition Against Spring Hunting will be holding a meeting with the Electoral Commission next week and demand that the timeframes for the spring hunting referendum are kept.

This week, the President approved the Electoral Commission’s request to extend the time needed to verify the 44,000 signatures collected by the Coalition Against Spring Hunting by three months.

Coalition spokesperson Steve Micklewright told MaltaToday that the extension should not derail the coalition’s plans to hold the referendum in March 2015.

“We’ll be meeting the commission next week and we’ll ask for guarantees that everything is on schedule. We’re keen to keep the process going and ensure that the referendum coincides with the local council elections scheduled for March 2015,” Micklewright said.

The Electoral Commission was granted the three-month extension after realising that it would be humanly impossible to meet the 15-day deadline imposed by law, which expired today.

The coalition, made up of 11 organisations including BirdLife Malta and Alternattiva Demokratika, collected enough signatures needed to call for a referendum. The Law holds that a petition calling for a referendum to abrogate a law has to be signed by 10% of all eligible voters, equating to around 34,000 signatures.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Alternattiva Demokratika deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said the coalition only got to know about the extension this week, confirming that a meeting with the commission will be held next week.

“Although we were never told that the commission would request an extension, it was evident that they were scratching their heads over the verification process given the European Parliament election commitments and the lack of staff.”

While noting that the coalition will demand access to the verification process, which includes the arduous task of comparing the signatures to the ID card database, Cacopardo said that the coalition would be insisting that timelines are respected.