Citizen initiatives’ Platform MyVoice

Imants Breidaks CEO of ManaBalss.lv

18th of March, 2016

“ManaBalss.lv now puts Latvia at the forefront of European efforts to shift

some forms of political participation to the Internet.”

The New York Times April 9, 2013

The Problem

The Challenge

The Solution

Bringing people’s ideas to Parliament and putting them on the official agenda.

HOW DOES IT WORK?INITIATIVE SUBMITTED TO MANABALSS.LV, REVIEWED, IMPROVED

INITIATIVE PUBLISHED ON MANABALSS.LV

COLLECTING SIGNATURES

10 000 SIGNATURES >> SUBMITTED TO PARLIAMENT

REVIEWED IN PARLIAMENT (TECHNICAL)

REVIEWED & DISCUSSED IN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION (CONTENT)

A VOTE IN PARLIAMENT (SUGGESTED BY THE COMMISSION)

Because of Mana Balss / My Voice

New law provisions on stricter consequences for breaking MP’s ethical code

A new participation mechanism – collective submission

New law provisions on limiting the use of synthetic drugs

Mana Balss / My Voice

22 initiatives have been submitted to the Parliament

9 initiatives have received a vote in Parliament and have become laws or law amendments!

Over 50% of Latvia’s population have visited ManaBalss.lv

500 000 signatures collected

Recognized as an Open Government success story world wide

Mana Balss / My Voice

Comparison

White House petition system:- Oriented towards executive power. Requests of all kinds.- 100’000 votes needed- ~212 have got the needed amount and recieved response.- 1 (?) have become a law

United Kingdom parliamentary & governmental petitions:- Oriented towards executive and legislative power. Requests of all

kinds.- 10’000 or 100’000 needed- 104 have gotten government response and 19 have gotten House of

Commons response- Possibly 0 changes in laws.

Comparison

Citizen initiative platform in Finland:- Maintained by Ministry of Justice as one of few participation tools- 50’000 votes needed- 400 published after quality control by the ministry- 10 have got the needed amount- 1 has become a law

Lack of quality control for authors, texts. Results – some anticonstitutional, radical and illegal petitions.

Low number of signatures needed for submission. 25’000 (0,06% of population) vs 10’000 (0,5%).

Low level of obligations from state institutions to answer.

Systems are not user-friendly, hard to navigate, disorganized databases of petitions.

Large presence of personal and local level issues that are raised to national level. Result: 17’000 petitions on Ukrainian presidential site in 2 months since launch. Impossible to manage for 1 employee.

Petitions more like complaints rather than initiatives towards solutions.

A case of Ukrainian state petition platforms

Enthusiastic people

User friendly technology

Cooperation with state

institutions

Financially self-

sustainable

Mana Balss My Voice

How can governments create effective participation frameworks

and tools for the people to come up with and implement their own

solutions?

Get in touch!We would love to tell you more.

www.manabalss.lv // sveiki@manabalss.lv