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A law approved yesterday in second debate in the Congress authorizes citizens to approve or to defeat some kinds of laws, like reforms to the Constitution.

The bill passed unanimously. Referendums may not address the approval or removal of laws relating to budgets, taxes, changes in monetary and fiscal policy, international loans, pensions, national security and administrative contracts.

The results of the referendum are binding if at least 30% of citizens registered in the electoral registry (currently 765,000) participate. If the matter to be voted on may be passed by a simple majority of legislators.

The results of the referendum are binding if at least 40% of citizens registered in the electoral registry (currently 1,020,000) participate if the matter to be voted on requires 38 votes.

A call to a referendum may happen if 5% of citizens registered in the electoral registry (currently 127,000) sign a petition.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 24th, 2006 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Costa Rica News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.