The process leading to a referendum to abolish spring hunting officially began yesterday when 44,376 signatures were presented to the Electoral Commission.

Vetting by the Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting confirmed that 40,351 of these belonged to people on the Electoral Register.

This substantially exceeded the minimum number of signatures needed for the abrogative referendum to take place, which is 10 per cent of the electorate, or 33,418 signatures.

Carmel Cacopardo, from Alternattiva Demokratika, one of the 13 organisations that form the coalition, admitted that, initially, the coalition expected the process of collecting the necessary signatures to be longer.

However, following the massacre of a flock of eagles in October, the number shot up.

From the addresses listed in the petition, Mr Cacopardo surmised that some signatories hailed from families of hunters or were even former hunters themselves.

The coalition had contacted the commission in January, however, it decided to submit the signatures yesterday so that the possible abrogative referendum would coincide with next year’s local council elections and so help decrease costs.

This week alone, Mr Cacopardo added, some 200 signatures were added to the petition following the shooting of black-winged stilts.

The commission now has 15 days to vet the signatories. Once this process is complete, it will submit the signatures, together with a covering note, to the Constitutional Court, which will then allow three months for opponents to register objections.

Is the coalition confident it will see the referendum through?

“Yes, we have been careful to ensure that, legally, there are no grounds for objection,” Mr Cacopardo said.

In case of any objections, the 10 referendum proponents will have a month to reply and the court will have another month to set a hearing if it deems it necessary.

A decision will be made a month later and if the court rules the referendum can go ahead, the President will set a date between three and six months from the issue of a decree.

If the referendum goes ahead, it will be the first in 150 years to have been prompted by electors and the only one to cancel a law.

Voters will be voting “yes” for the law to be cancelled and “no” for it to remain as it is.

In December, the hunters’ lobby, FKNK, had launched a counter-petition to amend the Referenda Act to prevent minorities from invoking a law to organise an abrogative referendum. So far, they have not yet revealed the number of signatures collected.