Parliament on Friday asked the government to verify the number and authenticity of the signatures collected for the opposition populist Most party's referendum petitions to abolish COVID certificates and the relieve the crisis management team, and to include at least two representatives of each petition in the process.

The government was also asked to check if all the signatures were collected in line with the Referendum Act.

Parliament passed the relevant conclusions, proposed by the Committee on the Constitution, with 77 votes, while 32 MPs were against and 13 abstained.

Before the vote, parliament rejected amendments by Most and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to ask the State Electoral Commission, rather than the government, to verify the signatures in 30 days and the SDP’s proposal to establish a parliamentary task force, comprising three members from the opposition and four from the majority, to supervise the count.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said recently he could not say how much the verification would take and that once the signatures had been counted, the process was back in parliament’s hands.

If it is established that Most collected enough signatures, parliament can either call a referendum or ask the Constitutional Court to assess the referendum questions.

The party delivered the signatures to parliament on 24 January, saying they had collected 410,533 for the petition against COVID certificates and 409,219 against the national COVID crisis management team, more than the 368,867 required (10% of eligible voters) for a referendum to be called.

Most calls out majority for not allowing State Electoral Commission to count votes

Before today’s vote, MP Marin Miletic of the Most party called out the ruling majority for not allowing the State Electoral Commission to count votes because “everyone would be sure in that case.”

He appealed to the majority’s conscience during the vote, telling them not to be afraid of citizens and to allow the referendum.