Finland Times

On an average 7,000 to 10,000 people visited the open ministry initiated the webpage daily when the justice ministry began in May 1, 2012 to facilitate the citizens to raise their voices in parliament. But the number of visitors declined sharply early this year.   

 “The involvement of the people in the citizen initiatives page reduced significantly from early this year, when two high profile bills were frequently in the headlines,” Joonas Pekkanen of the open ministry, who leads the webpage said.

But no new initiative was taken place so far, said the ministry sources.

The House rejected the first two bills -ban on fur farming and same sex marriage- brought by the citizen initiatives.

Pekkanen said that may be they are waiting for the results on the bills before taking further initiatives.

Project manager Mikko Levämäki said that the project would be well-established, if the daily visitor number is 8,000 to 12,000 on an average but the number has fallen further.

The parliament on May 19 rejected the bill that sought provision to ban fur farming, which activists say a form of cruelty on wild animals.

The bill was placed before the House after the citizen initiative demanded the ban after collecting more than 70,000 signatures in favour of forbidding such farming. The Fur farming industry owners are accused of cruelty on caged animals to produce fur.  The House rejected the bill by 146 votes to 36.

Another proposal for legalization of same-sex marriage was submitted in the parliament in March this year but, was rejected in a narrow margin before placement. The bill is expected to be placed again later this year as the citizens have already collected more than 70,000 sisignature in favour of the bill.

According to the Act on citizens' initiative, which entered into force in the beginning of March 2012, at least fifty thousand Finnish citizens entitled to vote have the right to submit an initiative for the enactment of an act to the Parliament.