An online petition signed by more than 3.5 million people calling for a second referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union (EU) is in progress. This petition was started by a Leave campaigner who says it has been “hijacked” by unhappy Remain voters. The petition, which has attracted millions of signatures in the wake of Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union last Thursday, calls for a second referendum on the issue if the result is less than decisive.
Another referendum should be held, it says, "if the remain or leave vote is less than 60 percent based a turnout less than 75 percent." In a startling result, the Leave campaign won Thursday's referendum with 52% of the vote, with 72% of voters turning out.
The 100,000 threshold
Any petition that gets more than 100,000 signatures is considered by Parliament's Petitions Committee, which weighs whether to send the petition for debate by lawmakers. MP Helen Jones, chair of the committee, said in a statement Sunday that the committee would consider the petition at its meeting this week and decide whether to schedule a parliamentary debate on it.
The Controversy
It came as the 'EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum' petition posted on the UK Government and Parliament Petitions website showed a suspicious number of signatures attributed to places outside the UK – in some cases more than their total population.
In the Vatican City, home to Pope Francis, 39,411 residents apparently signed the petition vowing their annoyance. Evidently the total population of the holy city is 800 only.
In North Korea, one of the least internet-connected countries in the world, 23,778 people had apparently gone online to express their frustration at the UK’s decision to quit the EU.
Located 800 miles south-east of the Falklands, and with a permanent population of zero, the South Atlantic British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands was responsible for more than 3,000 signatures
That was some 300 more than those coming from the British Antarctic Territory, which though home to some 400 researchers also has no settled population of its own.
Signatories are also recorded in places as far flung as the Caribbean island of Aruba (101), Bermuda (564), China (432), Hong Kong (2,089), Japan (742) Venezuela (24) and the South Pacific Islands of Tuvalu (18), Wallis and Fortuna (8) and Vanuatu (31).
Overall, close to 2.5 million signatures had been added from within the UK by midday on Sunday(26th June 2016), making up an overwhelming proportion of the whole.
Source: Telegraph
