In an ongoing story regarding public support for Budapest, Hungary’s 2024 Olympic Games bid, an appeal was filed just this week by a member of the city’s voting committee against moving forward with a possible public referendum.
As reported last month, support is reportedly growing in Budapest for the public to be heard regarding the city’s 2024 Olympic Games candidacy. The decision on whether the referendum can proceed will be determined by Hungarian courts. If given the go-ahead, however, referendum supporters would need to collect 140,000 signatures in order to render a referendum as early as the spring.
This isn’t the first time the idea of a referendum was brought to the government’s attention, as a vote on this topic already took place already last December. The Budapest City Council had put forth a proposal to hold a public referendum to consider whether the city should indeed continue with its bid for the 2024 Olympic Games. In a vote, the idea was rejected by a tally of 16 to 14, with 2 abstentions.
The topic of a referendum was brought to the forefront in light of Hamburg, Germany’s stunning public defeat of its 2024 bid. Polls in that city leading up to the public vote highly suggested that voters would indeed vote to support the bid, but poll results rendered otherwise and the city is now out of contention to host the 2024 Games.
As it stands now, the cities of Los Angeles, Paris and Rome join Budapest as possible contenders for host of the 2024 Olympics. The winning bid will ultimately be selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in September of 2017.