The Netherlands will hold a referendum on legislation giving law enforcement authorities far-reaching surveillance powers, the Dutch Voting Commission said on Wednesday. Dutch law obliges the government to hold a non-binding referendum if a petition with at least 300,000 signatures is submitted to the Voting Commission. The agency said it had received more than 384,000 valid signatures and that the referendum would be held on March 21 together with municipal elections. The referendum law is itself controversial and may be repealed by the newly appointed right-of-centre government under Prime Minister Mark Rutte. It later emerged that the signatures to hold the Ukraine referendum were gathered via the internet and never vetted.

Source: Egypt Independent November 01, 2017 11:03 UTC