ManaBalss.lv

ManaBalss.lv
Formation June 1, 2011 (2011-06-01)
Founder Kristofs Blaus, Jānis Erts
Founded at Latvia
Type Online petitions
Headquarters Riga, Latvia
Official language
Latvian / Russian
Chairman of the Board
 Imants Breidaks
Board Member
 Valdis Pornieks
Board Member
 Annija Emersone
Website manabalss.lv

ManaBalss.lv is a civic organization based in Latvia and launched in June 2011 to provide a possibility for the citizens of Latvia to promote their initiatives and gain support for these initiatives for further submission to Saeima - national parliament of Latvia. Activities of ManaBalss.lv are characterised by very good rate of success: approximately half of the public initiatives are either supported by Saeima or are in the process of review.

History

ManaBalss.lv was created in the late 2010 - early 2011 by social activists Kristofs Blaus and Jānis Erts as a response to the mismanagement of the governance in the country which led to the 2008 Latvian financial crisis. Name of the portal in Latvian language means "My Voice".

The first initiatives were launched in June 2011 and were aimed at making the information about the offshoring operations more open to the general public. Over the first week the initiative gathered more than 10 000 supporters and as a response to this Saeima urgently changed the legislation.[1]

Until the June 2017 through ManaBalss.lv were proposed 42 legislatory initiatives. 15 of these initiatives have been supported either by Saeima or by municipalities of Latvia while 14 initiatives are under consideration. It has been assessed that more than 70% of the population of Latvia have visited the portal, there have been collected 791 000 signatures.[2]

ManaBalss.lv is considered to be a successful case of internet activism where online petitioning and well-organised lobbying activities can help in the democratization of society and country.[3] According to ManaBalss.lv it is the most successful national citizen legislative initiatives' platform in the world.

Funding, handling of initiatives

Major part of the activities of ManaBalss.lv are financed by the donations of individual users (EUR 32 000 in 2016[4]), part of the financing is attracted as local and international grants as well as comparatively small donations from organizations. Yearly ~25'000 people donate money to the platform.

Initiatives can be submitted by any citizen of Latvia. Each initiative should comply with minimum requirements, e.g. it should be implemented by the state or municipal institutions through legislatory changes and other activities, the initiative should be constructive and feasible.

After the initiative is approved by ManaBalss.lv it should collect 10 000 supporters in order to be submitted to Saeima.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Saeima sāk "ofšoru" atvēršanu". Ir. June 16, 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2017. .
  2. ↑ Breidaks, Imants (26 June 2017). Citizen initiatives’ Platform MyVoice (PDF) (Speech). Civil Society Days 2017. Brussels, Belgium. Retrieved 6 August 2017. .
  3. ↑ Sally McGrane (April 19, 2013). "Online, Latvians' Ideas Can Bloom Into Law". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 August 2017. .
  4. ↑ "ManaBalss.lv Atbalstītāji".
  5. ↑ "ManaBalss.lv Iniciatīvu iesniedzējiem".
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