II. Comments on the test of the law

C. Some specific comments on the concrete articles on the new law on referendum.

1. General provisions

Article 5 on general principles and 7 on equal voting rights give a complete list of rights of citizens to participate in a referendum. However, the right of citizens to oppose proposals to be submitted to a referendum is not sufficiently dealt with in these articles and in the rest of the text. The Venice Commission would like to remind one of the recommendations of the Code of Good practice on referendums, which provides that “balanced coverage must be guaranteed to the proposal’s supporters and opponents in other public mass media broadcasts, especially news broadcasts. Account may be taken of   the number of political parties supporting each option or their election results”.[1] The text of the law should include more provisions on the right of citizens to campaign against the proposal to be submitted to a referendum.

[1]Code of Good practice on referendums, I.2.2.c.