Republicanism in Australia is a movement to change Australia's system of government from a constitutional parliamentary monarchy to a republic, replacing the monarch of Australia with a president. Republicanism was first espoused in Australia before Federation in 1901. After a period of decline after Federation, the movement again became prominent at the end of the 20th century after successive legal and socio-cultural changes loosened Australia's ties with the United Kingdom.
An institutional referendum was held in Italy on 2 June 1946, a key event of Italian contemporary history.
Referendums in the United Kingdom are occasionally held at a national, regional or local level. Historically, national referendums are rare due to the long-standing principle of parliamentary sovereignty. There is no constitutional requirement to hold a national referendum for any purpose or on any issue; the UK Parliament is free to legislate through an Act of Parliament for a national plebiscite to be held on any question at any time, but these cannot be constitutionally binding on either the Government or Parliament, although they usually have a persuasive political effect.
Kigeli V Ndahindurwa was the last ruling King (Mwami) of Rwanda, from 28 July 1959 until the end of the UN-mandate with Belgian administration and the declaration of an independent Republic of Rwanda 1 July 1962. On 25 September 1961, a referendum voted for the abolition of the Rwandan monarchy following the Rwandan revolution.
Mutara II Rwogera was the King of Rwanda from 1830 to his death in June 1853. Under his rule and that of his successor Kigeli IV Rwabugiri, the kingdom reached its pinnacle of power.
Bulgaria elects on the national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term directly by the people. The National Assembly has 240 members elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies with a 4% threshold. Bulgaria has a multi-party system in which often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone and parties must work with each to form governments.
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had been approved by a half-elected, half-appointed Constitutional Convention held in Canberra in February 1998. The second question, generally deemed to be far less important politically, asked whether Australia should alter the Constitution to insert a preamble. For some years opinion polls had suggested that a majority of the electorate favoured a republic. Nonetheless, the republic referendum was defeated, partly due to division among republicans on the method proposed for selection of the president and dissident republicans opposed the president to have strong executive power.
Queen Dowager Rosalie Gicanda was the wife of Rwandan King Mutara III Rudahigwa. After her husband died in mysterious circumstances in 1959, the Rwandan monarchy lasted only two more years, under the leadership of King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa and then coming to an end with the Rwandan Revolution in 1961. However, the Queen continued to live in Butare in Butare Province, Rwanda, along with her mother and several ladies-in-waiting. Where she was later murdered during the Rwandan genocide.
The Kingdom of Rwanda was a pre-colonial kingdom in East Africa which survived with some of its autonomy intact under German and Belgian colonial rule until its monarchy was abolished during the Rwandan Revolution in 1961. After a 1961 referendum, Rwanda became a republic and received its independence in 1962.
A referendum on dissolving the union with Sweden was held in Norway on 13 August 1905. Dissolving the union, which had been in place since 1814, was approved by almost 100% of voters, with just 184 voting against the proposal out of over 371,000 votes cast.
Kigeli IV Rwabugiri was the king (mwami) of the Kingdom of Rwanda in the mid-nineteenth century. He was among the last Nyiginya kings in a ruling dynasty that had traced their lineage back four centuries to Gihanga, the first 'historical' king of Rwanda whose exploits are celebrated in oral chronicles. He was a Tutsi with the birth name Sezisoni. He was the first king in Rwanda's history to come into contact with Europeans. He established an army equipped with guns he obtained from Germans and prohibited most foreigners, especially Arabs, from entering his kingdom.
The republics in the Commonwealth of Nations are the sovereign states in the organisation with a republican form of government. As of June 2022, 36 out of the 56 member states were republics. Charles III, who is the reigning monarch in the Commonwealth realms, is also still the titular Head of the Commonwealth in a personal capacity. This role does not carry with it any power; instead, it is a symbol of the free association of Commonwealth members.
A referendum on retaining the monarchy or becoming a republic was held in Norway on 12 and 13 November 1905. Voters were asked whether they approved of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly self-ruling country. The Storting had wanted to offer the throne to Prince Carl of Denmark, but the prince insisted that the Norwegian people have a chance to decide whether they wanted to retain a monarchy.
The Rwandan Revolution, also known as the Hutu Revolution, Social Revolution, or Wind of Destruction, was a period of ethnic violence in Rwanda from 1959 to 1961 between the Hutu and the Tutsi, two of the three ethnic groups in Rwanda. The revolution saw the country transition from a Belgian colony with a Tutsi monarchy to an independent Hutu-dominated republic.
A referendum on restoring the monarchy was held in Albania on 29 June 1997 alongside parliamentary elections. The proposal was rejected by 66.7% of voters. However, former Crown Prince Leka claimed that 65.7% voted in favour.
Kigeli II Nyamuheshera was Mwami (King) of the Kingdom of Rwanda from 1576-1609. He was a great warrior and expansionist. He had a strong army known as the "Inkingi" (pillar). One of his military camps, known as "Iziruguru", was attacked by a people called "Abanyabungo" from the western Kivu in the modern-day Congo. Kigeli II attacked chiefdoms in eastern Congo, including Bishugi, Kamuronsi, Gishali, Buhunde, Buzi, and Tongo (Masisi). He was stopped by thick rain forests from proceeding further into Congo. He redirected his expansionist attacks into western Uganda, around Lake Edward, and stopped at the "rock of Kabasha" and marked it as the then border between Rwanda and Busongora. Busongora was also known as the land of the Bacwezi. It was against Rwandan customary law to attack Busongora as it was believed to be the home of the god Ryangombe.
The Abiru are the members of the privy council of the monarchy of Rwanda. They emanate from the earliest pre-colonial Rwandan traditions, and are tied to the monarchy's mythic origins. Due to the mythopoetic nature of accounts of the early history of the Abiru and the Rwandan monarchy, an accurate history of the Abiru is difficult to codify or study.
The Bugesera invasion, also known as the Bloody Christmas, was a military attack which was conducted against Rwanda by Inyenzi rebels who aimed to overthrow the government in December 1963. The Inyenzi were a collection of ethnically Tutsi exiles who were affiliated with the Rwandan political party Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR), which had supported Rwanda's deposed Tutsi monarchy. The Inyenzi opposed Rwanda's transformation upon independence from Belgium into a state run by the ethnic Hutu majority through the Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu (PARMEHUTU), an anti-Tutsi political party led by President Grégoire Kayibanda. In late 1963 Inyenzi leaders decided to launch an invasion of Rwanda from their bases in neighbouring countries to overthrow Kayibanda. While an attempted assault in November was stopped by the government of Burundi, early in the morning on 21 December 1963 several hundred Inyenzi crossed the Burundian border and captured the Rwandan military in camp in Gako, Bugesera. Bolstered with seized arms and recruited locals, the Iyenzi—numbering between 1,000 and 7,000—marched on the Rwandan capital, Kigali. They were stopped 12 miles south of the city at Kanzenze Bridge along the Nyabarongo River by multiple units of the Garde Nationale Rwandaise (GNR). The GNR routed the rebels with their superior firepower, and in subsequent days repelled further Inyenzi attacks launched from the Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
In the Rwandan Revolution, the coup of Gitarama was an event which occurred on 28 January 1961 in which the monarchy in Rwanda, then a part of the Belgian mandate of Ruanda-Urundi, was abolished and replaced with a republican political system. The traditional monarchy was led by a Mwami (king), who ruled through an administration of chiefs and subchiefs in the context of a feudal system of patron-client relations based on tribute. The Mwami and most of his chiefs were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, a group which wielded considerable social, political economic power. Of subordinate status to the Tutsis was the Hutu ethnic majority. As part of their rule, the Belgians institutionalised a racial hierarchy which favoured the Tutsis at the expense of the Hutus.
