The municipalities surrounding Stockholm in Stockholm County, especially those that are part of the city of Stockholm, showed discontent with the fact that the people of those municipalities get no say whether the congestion taxes will be implemented permanently. A substantial number of the inhabitants of the nearby municipalities travel to and from work through the congestion tax area. Therefore, several of these municipalities decided also to have local referendums. A municipality is allowed to hold a consultative referendum at any time, but as the congestion tax had to be decided at the national parliament level it was unclear how the results would be interpreted if the government there changed after the 2006 general election, which was held the same day as these referendums.