Word: parliament
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...released on Jan. 15, that revolution will reduce spending by cutting operating expenses by 10% and freezing wages and new hiring. The plan also calls for an improved tax-collection system and the creation of an independent statistics service, which should make it harder for officials to manipulate data. Parliament has passed a 20% tax on alcohol and tobacco, and other tax hikes are rumored. This worries executives like Doros Constantinou, the CEO of Coca-Cola Hellenic, which sells soft drinks in 28 countries. "An increase in taxes will have an impact on disposable income," he says. "That...
...after the misfortune of others. In 1999, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was elected deputy governor of Bayelsa province in the south - only to become governor when his boss was arrested for embezzlement. This week Jonathan, elected Vice President of Nigeria in 2007, has become acting president after the country's parliament decided his boss, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, was too sick to rule...
...constitution, which can be brought to a national vote only if the sponsors gather 100,000 signatures. (For the animal-lawyers initiative, supporters collected 144,000 signatures.) A referendum, which requires just 50,000 signatures, is a vote on whether to accept or reject laws made by parliament, like when the public overwhelmingly approved the decision to renew Switzerland's heroin-distribution program in 2008. "They are powerful instruments for launching new laws and correcting policies, and they are an integral part of our culture," says Andreas Auer, director of the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy in the town...
...People's Party (SVP) sponsored an initiative to ban the building of minarets on mosques - a proposal opponents decried as anti-Muslim and hateful. The ban was approved by more than 57% of voters, but there's been talk among Muslim groups about challenging it in court. The Swiss parliament can declare an initiative invalid only if it violates international law. This last happened in 1996, when legislators halted an SVP initiative calling for the deportation of asylum seekers to their countries of origin. (See TIME's photo-essay "Abused No More: Rehabilitated Attack Dogs...
...incoming President has recast himself as a moderate who sees integration with Europe as a path to higher living standards and wants close but not slavish relations with Moscow. Observers say that after 2004, Yanukovych's understanding of democracy evolved. "In 2007, when Yushchenko wanted to dissolve parliament, [then Prime Minister] Yanukovych's first reaction was to call Javier Solana and ask for mediation," says Olha Shumylo, director of the International Center for Policy Studies in Kiev. "This shows he sees the E.U. as an anchor of democracy...