Signature lists shall be submitted by the coordinators in districts, cities, city-districts not later than the date of expiry of the term established for gathering signatures to the district or city executive committee, or local district administration which, within a ten-day period, verifies authenticity of citizens’ signatures in the signature lists. In doing so, at least 20 per cent of the citizens’ signatures in the signature lists submitted by the initiative group shall be verified.

The order of verification and account of citizens’ signatures in the signature lists submitted to the bodies indicated in part one of this Article are determined and the inauthentic citizens’ signatures are recognized inauthentic as provided for by parts sixteen and eighteen of Article 61 of this Code.Signatures of citizens collected before registration of the initiative group are also considered to be inauthentic.Signatures of the citizens are not subject to the verification and accounting if the signature list has not the wording of the issue put forward to the referendum, and/or formulation in essence of the proposed decision (draft law). If the signature list received by the district, city executive committee, local administration contains signatures of the citizens residing on the territory of different districts, cities of regional subordination, city-districts, the verification and accounting cover only the signatures gathered on the territory of the region, city, city-district, in the executive committee of which or in the local administration that signature list was handed in.

When several signatures of the same citizen have been found, the only one signature considered to be authentic whereas the remainder of the signatures is considered to be inauthentic.

If the number of citizens signatures found inauthentic during verification constitutes more than 15 per cent of the number of the signatures verified, another 15 per cent of the signatures in the signature lists submitted to the respective district or city executive committee or the local administration to be verified.

If the total number of inauthentic citizens’ signatures found during verifications constitutes more than 15 per cent of the total number of signatures verified in the signature lists, a further verification of the signatures in the signature lists by the district or city executive committee or by the local administration is terminated and all signatures of citizens in the submitted signature lists are not taken into account in determining the results of gathering signatures in the region, city or city-district.

The respective district or city executive committee, or the local administration, takes the decision on the results of gathering citizens’ signatures in the signature lists in support of the initiative on the holding of the republican referendum which is forwarded to the regional or the Minsk City Executive Committee, respectively.The decision specifies the total number of signatures in the signature lists received from the initiative group; the number of signatures verified for authenticity; the number of signatures recognized as authentic and the number of signatures recognized as inauthentic.

The regional or the Minsk City Executive Committee may, when required, also verify, within a five-day period, authenticity of citizens’ signatures in the signature lists.On the basis of the decisions of the district or city executive committees or of the respective local administrations on the establishment of the number of citizens who put their signatures in the signature lists in support of the initiative for the holding of the referendum and of the results of verification of authenticity of citizens signatures in the signature lists made by the regional or the Minsk City Executive Committee, the regional or the Minsk City Executive Committee summarizes the results of gathering signatures for the region or the city of Minsk, takes decision thereon and forward it to the Central Commission.The decision specifies the data provided for by part six of this Article.A copy of the decision is handed over to the coordinator of the initiative group in the region, city of Minsk.

After the regional and Minsk city Executive Committees have taken decisions, the initiative group makes the final act on gathering signatures and submits it to the Central Commission.

The Central Commission:

verifies the compliance of the final act of the initiative group and of the received decisions of the regional or Minsk City Executive Committees with the requirements of this Code and of other acts of legislation of the Republic of Belarus;

draws up a conclusion on the observance by the initiative group of the requirements of this Code and a protocol on the results of gathering signatures confirming availability of at least 450 thousand citizens’ signatures, including at least 30 thousand citizens’ signatures from each region and from the city of Minsk.

The Central Commission transfers the final statement of the initiative group, together with its conclusion and the protocol, if there are no grounds for rejection of the proposal on the holding of the referendum, to the President of the Republic of Belarus.

The Central Commission rejects the proposal on the holding of the referendum and informs about that the initiative group and the President of the Republic of Belarus in the cases of:

violation of the term of gathering citizens’ signatures;

absence of the required number of signatures;

detection of violations of the voluntary principle in the course of gathering signatures stated as established by the Central Commission;

submission by the initiative group of more than fifteen per cent of inauthentic signatures of the total number of citizens’ signatures verified in the signature lists;

absence of the special bank account;

exceeding by more than 20 percent of the maximum amount of spending of means of the initiative group fund mentioned in part three of Article 114¹ of this Code, or use of other monetary means in the same amounts in addition to means of the electoral fund;

finding out in the submitted documents of other violations of the requirements of this Code and of other legislation acts of the Republic of Belarus.

The decision of the Central Commission on rejection of the proposal for the holding of the referendum may be appealed against within a month period in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus by the head of the initiative group.

A repeated initiation by citizens of the holding of a referendum on one and the same issue is allowed not earlier than one year after the rejection of the proposal on the holding of the referendum and not earlier than three years after the holding of a referendum on that issue.