Steve Micklewright, left, and Christian Debono take the signatures to the Electoral Commission. File photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Anti-spring hunting lobbyists collected enough signatures to force a spring hunting referendum, Times of Malta has learnt.

If all the legal timeframes are taken to the maximum, the referendum can be held at the earliest in April and the latest in July 2015. This will miss the next batch of local council elections by one month and likely see a standalone referendum.

An Electoral Commission source told this newspaper that the 10 per cent of the electorate required to force an abrogative referendum had been verified.

The signatures were presented to the Constitutional Court earlier this week. The petition was presented to the Electoral Commission last March. The Commission was unable to verify the signatures in the 10-day window allowed at law and obtained a three-month extension from the President.

The process will now go through a nine-12 month legal journey before the vote is held.

Sources confirmed that a painstaking analysis of the signatures had shown everything to be in order.

Road to the referendum

The Constitutional Court has two days to officially announce that the signatures have been verified.

The courts then allow three months for objections from those opposed to the vote.

The only objections that can be made are about the legality of the vote and the validity of the signatures.

The courts will then allow one month to receive counter arguments, another month for a court hearing on these arguments and one final month to hand down a decision on whether the referendum can be held.

Once a decision is made, the courts have 10 days to notify the President, who will then set a date for the vote no sooner than three months and no later than six.

The process should take between six and 12 months before votes are cast. This will mean that the referendum should be held between April and July 2015 if all the time frames are utilised to the maximum.

This will see the referendum miss the local council appointment next March.

Hunters' reaction

In an initial reaction, hunters’ federation CEO Lino Farrugia said the FKNK would be filing objections to the proposed referendum. He did not elaborate.

When asked whether a standalone referendum would work in favour of the hunting lobby, Mr Farrugia said it was too early to comment.

“We will be taking this step-by-step because it is not yet clear whether the referendum will actually be held [since the courts could decide against it]. But I am not sure whether a standalone would work in favour,” he said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the anti-spring hunting coalition declined to comment, saying an official position on the likelihood of a standalone vote would be issued later today.