Latvia committed to enabling the collection of signatures online in order for citizens to initiate and vote on a referendum, thereby directly participating in democratic processes.
Problems and Purpose
The creation of a portal for e-signatures was expected to expand the potential for public participation by making it significantly easier for citizens to initiate and vote on popular initiatives such as referendums and legal amendments.[1]
Background History and Context
It was already possible for Latvians to initiate referenda and legislative amendments by collecting signatures on paper, which were witnessed by a notary public, but no similar possibility was available online.
As of January 1, 2015, amendments to the Law on National Referenda, Legislative Initiatives and the European Citizens Initiative allow Latvian residents to sign online the initiatives on referenda and legislation via the portal Latvija.lv, as well as online systems created by private entities.[1]
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The lead institution which organized this initiative was the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development.[1]
Participant Recruitment and Selection
The online portal is open to any resident of Latvia with internet access who wishes to sign or initiate a referendum.
Methods and Tools Used
An online portal will be available for citizens to collect signatures for popular initiatives such as referendums.
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
In January 2015, the online collection of signatures was offered as an e-service on the state and local government platform, http://www.latvija.lv, aiming to make participation in legislative and referendum initiatives more convenient and widely accessible, including to those staying abroad.[1] The platform allows the submission, checking and counting of votes submitted as well as sharing of the information on social networks.
Collecting a “sufficient number of signatures allows the Central Election Commission to initiate a referendum in accordance with the law.” [1]
Later in 2015, the government addressed two shortcomings of the initial system, thereby making it “easier for citizens to access the system by: (1) allowing them to use their commercial bank account authorization, and (2) allowing third parties to collect signatures online.” [2] Private entities could then devise solutions for signature collection provided their systems complied with relevant security and technical requirements. Annotations to the amendments indicate that NGO or expert opinions on the amendments were not consulted prior to discussion of the amendments by the government; however, the legislation appears to align with publicly expressed expert opinions. [1]
According to the first progress report in 2017, two initiatives were live on the portal, though neither had collected 1,000 votes.[2] The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) researcher attributed this lack of engagement to the initiatives themselves as not being of interest to citizens, and secondly, that the responsible NGOs did not carry out effective outreach campaigns.[1] Thus, the IRM researcher suggested improving navigation on the site and raising awareness of the platform in order to increase usage.[2]
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
Latvian citizens can now vote on proposals electronically, for free. Each proposal is announced on the website of the Central Election Commission as well as the official government portal. “Statistics for the two proposals that were on the portal (and concluded) reveal that 90 percent of voters chose to sign the petitions electronically on the new system,” which highlights a “greater ease of using the new portal compared with the previous paper-based system.” [1] As such, “according to the IRM researcher, the new use of technologies for civic participation has led to a major change in the level of government openness.” [1]
Analysis and Lessons Learned
Introducing an e-service for gathering signatures has allowed citizens to initiate referenda in a much cheaper way than before, opening up government in a significant way. However, the “IRM researcher’s analysis of the e-service found minor shortcomings that limit the effectiveness of the system. These are:
- Outdated information about the procedure. An official e-signature is still required for voters even though this is no longer the case;
- Difficulty navigating the portal. A search for the word ‘referenda’ leads to a description of the service but no links to actual referenda;
- Difficulty locating actual referenda. These can be found by searching under ‘voter initiatives’ or by browsing through the law enforcement and public participation pages to find the referenda tab; and
- Inability to view current referenda unless the user goes through an authorization process.” [1]
Another limitation, although not necessarily resulting from the implementation of the e-service, is that the system was introduced after (and because of) an increase in the required signatures to initiate a referendum (from 10,000 to about 144,000). Following this change, no initiative has gathered the necessary number of signatures. [1]
See Also
References
[1] Open Government Partnership. Online Collection of Signatures on Referenda (LV0024). Retrieved from https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/latvia/commitments/LV0024/
[2] Miezaine, Zinta. (2017). Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): Latvia End-of-Term Report 2015–2017. OGP. Retrieved from https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Latvia_EOT_Report_2015-2017_EN.pdf
External Links
https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/latvia-end-of-term-report-2015-2017-year-2/