Todor Petrov calls for a new referendum on the name

Civic Initiative for collecting signatures of at least 150,000 voters for holding an additional referendum for deciding citizens on the entire territory of the Republic of Macedonia delivered through the authorized nominator Todor Petrov, yesterday at the session of the Parliamentary Commission for Political System and Inter-Ethnic Relations with eight votes “in favour”, no votes “against” ” and one “abstained”, was assessed to be proper and followed through further parliamentary procedures.

The Legislative and Legal Commission has also approved the initiative, whose signatory is the leader of the World Macedonian Congress.
“Are you in favour of changing the country’s name from Macedonia to North Macedonia?” – is the question that, as Petrov explained at the session, would be posed in the referendum, which would be held if the necessary 150 thousand signatures were collected.

The initiative, as he clarified, was submitted on the request of 179 citizens, and according to the legal solutions, at least 100 citizens are necessary to apply for an initiative for collecting signatures for holding another referendum at the state level.

– Voters should answer this question, whether they are “in favour” or “against” or not vote at all. The issue is precisely formulated. With the initiative for an additional referendum for citizens’ decision-making on the entire territory of Macedonia, the citizens will check the previously adopted decision to change the name of the country from Macedonia to North Macedonia at the session held on January 11 this year with the amendments to the Constitution and the Constitutional Law on their implementation – said Petrov.

Now the initiative should be submitted to the Speaker of the Parliament, Talat Xhaferi, for it to reach its final destination in the SEC.
Once the SEC informs the submitters of the initiative that about 33 regional departments have been prepared, they are obliged within 20 days to submit the forms for collecting signatures to all regional departments and collect the signatures within three months.

Petrov says that it is positive that the presidential elections are to be held soon, as the regional offices of the SEC work from 8:30 to 16:30, and when announcing the elections they work in three shifts, even on Saturdays and Sundays. According to his forecasts, if the procedure goes through, the signatures should be collected from February 15 to May 15.