Unions collect enough signatures for referendum, but government withdraws amendments

A sufficient number of valid signatures had been collected to call a referendum on proposed changes to Croatia's labour laws, the Ministry of the Interior and Public Administration has announced.After the government alleged that 300,000 of over 800,000 signatures were invalid, the Constitution Committee confirmed that the requirements for calling the referendum had been met, with only 92,229 signatures questionable. A referendum can be called if 10 per cent of registered voters sign the petition - the unions collected 15.95.The Committee postponed the decision, however, on whether to call the referendum given that the government has now withdrawn the proposed changes to labour laws that unions stressed as a main cause for their demand.Twelve representatives – six from the coalition and six from the opposition – met to discuss the outcome. The majority party HDZ considered the referendum unnecessary in light of the withdrawal of the amendments. The opposition, however, insisted on respecting the citizens' will, the business daily Poslovni Dnevnik writes.

Source: Croatian Times Online News