Around noon on Monday, the opposition populist Most party submitted signatures collected in a recent campaign to call a referendum on abolishing the COVID certificate mandate and transferring decision-making powers from the national COVID-19 response team to the parliament.

Eighty-two boxes with citizens’ signatures supporting the party’s proposal to call a referendum on the matter were handed over to Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic by a Most party delegation, led by MP Nikola Grmoja.

The delegation said they had collected 410,533 signatures in favour of the proposal to have decisions related to COVID-19 adopted in the parliament and 409,219 signatures in favour of abolishing the COVID certificate mandate.

Recalling the relevant procedure, Jandrokovic said a request to call a referendum is forwarded to the parliamentary Constitution and Standing Orders Committee, which adopts a conclusion which is discussed at a plenary session of the parliament, after which the government is requested to check if the organiser of the referendum campaign has collected a sufficient number of signatures.

After the government, that is, the Justice and Public Administration Ministry, determines the number of signatures collected, they inform the parliament accordingly.

In earlier referendum campaigns, around 10% of the signatures collected were declared invalid for various reasons.

“If a sufficient number of signatures has been collected, the Constitution Committee makes a conclusion either to call a referendum or ask the Constitutional Court if the referendum question is in line with the Constitution,” Jandrokovic said.

Under the relevant rules, a referendum is held between 20 and 40 days after it has been called.