'Record 115,000 signatures collected' Monday for referendum

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 24 - A referendum proposal to reform Italy's citizenship law collected a record 155,000 signatures on Monday, the justice ministry said in a statement Tuesday. "In the day of yesterday alone, the digital platform created by the justice ministry for the signatures for the referendum gathered in total over 155,000 signatures on all questions of the referendum currently included in the system", the statement said Tuesday.
    "It is a record number, in a day during which a temporary interruption was recorded between the hours of 13 and 15 caused by the extremely elevated number of accesses", according to the statement.
    A reported 300,000 signatures had been collected as of Monday with 500,000 signatures necessary by the end of September to request the referendum on citizenship reform.
    The referendum launched by lawmaker Riccardo Magi from progressive party +Europa proposes, among others, to change current Italian citizenship legislation, which dates back to 1992, to cut down from 10 to five years the period of residence necessary to apply to become an Italian citizen, provided the applicant fulfils a number of criteria. (ANSA).