The Batkivschyna Party is gathering signatures to hold a referendum to prolong the moratorium on the sale of farmland, the party's leader, Yulia Tymoshenko has said.
"We hope that across the country people will support us, we will gather over three million signatures and we will call for holding [referendum] on an issue which is crucial for the country,” Tymoshenko said at a press conference in Sumy, according to a posting on her personal Web site.
According to Tymoshenko, initiative groups are being created in the regions to organize the gathering of signatures.
"Then, we will be able to obtain subscription lists from the Central Election Commission, if they do not issue them to us, then of course, we will gather signatures using those subscription lists that we print by ourselves. And we will insist that a referendum be announced," Tymoshenko said.
According to Tymoshenko, the cancelation of moratorium on the sale of farmland is untimely.
"We cannot lose the right and possibility to own the resources of farmland. There are also serious risks to the food security of our state, as the entrepreneurs, the shadow businessmen, who get this land will launch profitable businesses on this land, but not take into account that this land will become exhausted,” she added.
