PE-1706-2008 of July 8 of the current year, Lic. Murillo Montoya remits to this office a report with the final computation obtained from the review of the signature files, thereby reporting its conclusion.
I.That the Ley de Iniciativa Popular No. 8491 establishes in Article 1 the power to make laws or partially reform the Constitución Política, through the participation of at least five percent of the citizens registered on the electoral roll. Within Article 3 of the aforementioned body of law, the authority of the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones is established to verify the legitimacy of the voters’ signatures, within a period of thirty calendar days, counted from the day after it is communicated by the Directorio of the Asamblea Legislativa.
II.That in accordance with the provisions of the article of the Reglamento de Aplicación del artículo 3 de la Ley de Iniciativa Popular, Decreto No. 4-2007 of March 30, 2007, the electoral roll to be used for purposes of verifying the support percentage established in the Ley de Iniciativa Popular No. 8491 shall be that of the month immediately preceding the date on which the bill was presented to the Asamblea Legislativa for the respective procedure.
III.That the referenced petition having been presented before the Asamblea Legislativa in the month of June, and in accordance with the rule cited in the preceding consideration, the signature review procedure used as a quantitative parameter the electoral roll for the month of May of the current year, which was composed of 2,718,720 registered electors, this amount corresponding to 135,936 electors, which is equivalent to 5% thereof, which, in terms of the aforementioned regulations, must be met as support for the bill submitted to the legislative sphere under the popular initiative modality.
IV.From the analysis carried out of the signature files received, for the purposes of verifying their validity and compliance with the required percentage, the following result was obtained:
| Condition | Number of signatures | Percentage |
|---|
| Validated signatures | 107,840 | 78.51% |
| Blank lines (spaces without data). | 3,315 | 2.41% |
| Identification numbers canceled due to expiry. | 5 | 0.000% |
| Identification numbers that do not correspond. | 3,744 | 2.73% |
| Repeated signatures. | 7,743 | 5.64% |
| Signatures invalidated due to lack of signature “a ruego”. | 9 | 0.01% |
| Signatures presenting doubts as to their legitimacy. | 4,816 | 3.51% |
| Signatories not appearing in birth records (nacimientos). | 1,603 | 1.17% |
| Signatories not registered on the Padrón Nacional Electoral. | 2,831 | 2.06% |
| Signatories not verifiable or foreigners. | 5,324 | 3.88% |
| Recorded signatures do not appear. | 134 | 0.10% |
| Total | 137,364 | 100% |
V.Having validated 107,840 signatures and taking into account that the minimum number of support signatures required by law corresponds to 135,936 elector signatures, a shortfall is evident to complete that minimum number, of 28,096 signatures of electors registered on the electoral roll of May of the current year.
VII.That in accordance with numeral 8 of the Reglamento sobre la Aplicación del Artículo 3 de la Ley de Iniciativa Popular, Decreto No. 4-2007 of March 30, 2007, if the validated signatures do not cover or reach the minimum number required by law, the organizing group must be notified so that, within the period established in Article 3 of the Ley de Iniciativa Popular Number 8491, it remedies the defects or inconsistencies noted, which in the case before us constitute a shortfall of signatures to complete the minimum percentage of support required by law.
The procedure for review, validation, and computation of signatures is deemed concluded. The interested party is notified that within a non-extendable period of ninety calendar days, counted from the day after formal communication of this resolution, it must present before this Tribunal the corresponding sheets containing the number of signatures that complete the minimum number required by law, which corresponds to 28,096 signatures of citizen electors registered on the electoral roll for the month of May, 2008. The sheets containing the support signatures for the purpose of completing the minimum percentage must be foliated, continuing the numbering of those included in the files already analyzed, and may likewise be presented before this Tribunal in partial form until fully completing the amount of the shortfall already indicated.