In Slovenia, every candidate list wanting to participate in the EU election has to gather 1,000 signatures of support from voters. The main problem is that there is no possibility to sign and verify a form electronically. Therefore all parties have to collect signatures on the street, and all voters have to verify their signature at administrative offices. That is why all signature collectors stand in front of the local administrative offices.

For the Pirate Party of Slovenia (PPSI), this is the first time participating in the election and thus also the first time collecting signatures. The main activity was concentrated in the capital, Ljubljana. The PPSI candidate for MEP, Rolando Benjamin Vaz Ferreira, pointed out that it is hard to imagine all the political intrigue one can experience doing something as mundane as collecting state-mandated signatures:

“It’s even harder to imagine the wide array of reactions when people hear the words ‘Pirate Party’. However, once you’ve heard a 70+ year-old grandma tell you to go **** yourself, you’ve heard it all.”

Despite the reaction he received from that grandma PPSI’s president is certain that Benjamin is the best candidate for PP-SI. “He’s fresh, funny, has a lot of charm and knows how to convince people with direct and honest approach. I already see him at the EU parliament hacking the political process there.”

The president of PPSI, Rok Deželak, said that “what has to be done, is never hard”. Many thought that collecting 1,000 signatures is a quite impossible job, but they also found that it was an interesting task. The Pirate volunteers where forced to go out on the street, make contact with voters and convince them that this was a party there for them.

About Matic Urbanija

International Coordinator, Pirate Party of Slovenia/Contributor, Pirate Times/blog: maticurbanija.wordpress.com

 

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In Slovenia, every candidate list wanting to participate in the EU election has to gather 1,000 signatures of support from voters. The main problem is that there is no possibility…