Constitution Petition Cracks 20,000 Signatures

The petition created by the Women’s Association for a New Constitution this summer has reached over 20,000 signatures, expressing demand for the new constitution.

The new constitution had been voted on in a referendum eight years ago with about 67% voting in favour, although since then very little has happend to implement a new constitution.

Katrín Oddsdóttir, human rights lawyer and chairman of the Constitution Association, announced the new amount of signatures on the petition on her Facebook page yesterday.

The association’s goal is to collect 25,000 signatures until October 20th, at which time the referendum will have reached its eight year mark, before it will be presented before Parliament.

In a report by Vísir, Katrín is quoted saying, “We set ourselves a goal of 25,000 signatures, because it’s 10% of all eligible voters in Iceland and according to the new constitution, the one we want, that would be enough to submit a bill to Parliament. We think it shows well how power has been taken away from the people by ignoring the results of the referendum, so instead we have to sit around collecting signatures in Iceland. But it’s okay, we like it a lot and this is just the beginning.”

She also attributes a lot of the petition’s success to young people getting involved via social media, for example. Just recently the hashtag #hvar?, in English #where?, had been brought into circulation with people posting humorous pictures of themselves kooking for the new constitution in odd places, in order to raise awareness.

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