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Carlos Iafigliola, a presidential candidate for the National Party, presented nearly 70,000 signatures to the Electoral Court on Monday to file a referendum appeal to repeal the Trans Law, approved last year in Uruguay.

"We needed to collect 2% of the electoral register, which is a little over 54,000 signatures, and we are reaching almost 70,000, which means that people understood the message," he told Radio Montecarlo.

[READ ALSO: Campaign launched to repeal Uruguay's Comprehensive Trans Law]

Iafigliola said he seeks to repeal the Trans law because it allows "the hormone treatment of children and adolescents, introduces gender ideology, and grants privileges to trans people over the rest of the citizens."

Now the Electoral Court must validate these signatures; it has 50 days to do so. If validated, a pre-referendum would be triggered, and the candidate's campaign would need to gather signatures from 25% of registered voters to trigger a referendum.

Uruguay has had a gender identity law since 2009, but it was limited exclusively to changing the name on identity documents. Until now, there was no law that addressed the rights to health, housing, and employment for transgender people. Therefore, the comprehensive transgender law , which includes these rights as well as historical reparations for survivors.

The law stipulates:

-Incorporate the concept of gender identity as a category into national statistical systems. This means recognizing the identity and uniqueness of the gender community by including it in censuses, surveys, and reports.

-The change of name and sex assigned at birth ceases to be a judicial procedure and becomes an administrative procedure , before the General Directorate of the Civil Registry.

-Guarantee access to the education system . This includes providing support in all areas and implementing quotas (2 percent must be for trans people) and scholarships (8 percent of postgraduate funds from the Ministry of Education for trans people).

-Allocate 1 percent of job positions to transgender people in public employment opportunities. These positions must be filled by lottery among those who meet the requirements.

-Allocate 1 percent of the vacancies in training programs of the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training for trans people.

[READ ALSO: Uruguay has the first state census of trans people]

-Design inclusive cultural policies , adding a gender identity perspective to scholarships, funds, and incentives, at both the public and private levels.

-Include trans people in housing access .

-Guarantee the right to health services without discrimination or pathologization based on gender identity . The right of admission cannot be applied to transgender people. People over 18 years of age will have access to health services to support their transition with adjustments to their gender identity, such as surgeries and hormone therapy, with their consent, without having to go through legal proceedings. People under 18 years of age can request access to these services and hormone therapy, and for surgeries, they must have parental approval.

– Transgender people born before December 31, 1975, who have been victims of institutional violence or deprived of their liberty due to their gender identity, will have the right to reparations in cases of psychological, moral, or physical harm. This also applies if there were discriminatory practices by the State that limited their rights.