2011 Liberian constitutional referendum

Last updated

A referendum to amend the Constitution of Liberia was held on 23 August 2011. Voters chose whether to ratify four amendments regarding judge tenure, elections scheduling, presidential candidate requirements and the electoral system. The National Elections Commission of Liberia (NEC) oversaw the referendum.

Contents

Following the referendum, the NEC announced on 31 August that none of the four amendments had been ratified by the necessary two-thirds of voters. Unity Party Chairman Varney Sherman and Senator Fredrick Cherue of River Gee County later filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the NEC's certification of the defeat of Proposition 4 regarding a change from absolute majority to simple majority in all non-presidential elections, arguing that the NEC had unconstitutionally included invalid ballots in its computation of the results. The Supreme Court ruled on 20 September that the NEC had erred in its calculation of the vote and declared that Proposition 4 had passed.

Background

Both houses of the Legislature of Liberia passed a series of four amendments to the current Constitution of Liberia on 17 August 2010. [1] Per Article 91(a) of the Constitution, the amendments must be ratified by two-thirds of registered voters in a referendum held not sooner than one year after the passage of the amendments in the Legislature. Though all four amendments will be voted on in the same referendum, Article 91(b) requires that each amendment be individually approved by the voters.

Initially, NEC Chairman James M. Fromayan announced that the referendum would not be held before the scheduled presidential and legislative elections on 11 October 2011, stating that the estimated cost of holding both elections in close proximity would be prohibitive. [1] However, he reversed his position in September 2010, citing the fact that of the estimated US$69 million needed to conduct the 2011 elections, 65% of those funds would be used to hold runoff elections for legislative seats. [1] He noted that as funding for the runoff elections had not been secured and that one of the proposed amendments would eliminate those elections, it was prudent to hold the referendum before the 2011 elections. [2] With assurances for funding the referendum received from the government and foreign donors, the NEC scheduled the referendum to be held on 23 August 2011. [1] [2]

Proposed amendments

Residence requirement

Article 52(c) of the Constitution requires that presidential and vice-presidential candidates have been residents of Liberia for 10 years prior to their election. A proposed amendment would have shortened the residency requirement to five years, as well as specify that residency must be held for five continuous years immediately prior to the election. [3]

Supreme Court tenure

The terms of appointment for judges in the Liberian judicial system are defined by Article 72(b):

The Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court and judges of subordinate courts of record shall be retired at the age of seventy.

A proposed amendment would have increased the mandatory retirement age for all justices to seventy-five. [3]

Date of elections

Currently, Article 83(a) of the Constitution states:

Voting for the President, Vice–President, members of the Senate and members of the House of Representatives shall be conducted throughout the Republic on the second Tuesday in October of each election year.

The current date falls near the end of the rainy season in the country, which causes logistics difficulties for holding elections. [4] The proposed amendment would have altered the date of national elections to the second Tuesday of November. [3]

Additionally, municipal elections for mayors, city councils, and paramount, clan and town chiefs have yet to be held since the transition back to constitutional rule in 2005. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that so long as the country could not afford to hold municipal elections, the president could appoint mayors in consultation with local leaders. However, the Court ruled that once it was financially able, the National Elections Commission would be required to hold elections for municipal positions. [5]

As the Constitution does not specify a date for the holding of these elections, the proposed amendment would have staggered these elections with presidential elections, with elections for city mayors, city councils and chiefs held three years after each presidential election. [6]

Voting system

Article 83(b) mandated a two-round voting system for the presidential and legislative elections:

All elections of public officers shall be determined by an absolute majority of the votes cast. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first ballot, a second ballot shall be conducted on the second Tuesday following. The two candidates who received the greatest numbers of votes on the first ballot shall be designated to participate in the run-off election.

As a cost-saving measure, this article was not enforced for the 2005 legislative elections, where candidates were elected by a plurality. The amendment made this arrangement permanent; all subsequent elections use a single-round first-past-the-post method for all legislative and municipal elections while maintaining the two-round system for presidential elections. [3]

Political positions

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced her support for all four of the amendments, but said that her administration viewed the amendment regarding the switch to simple majority in legislative elections as the only crucial proposal due to its financial implications. [7] The opposition Liberty Party also announced its support for the amendments but argued for more comprehensive constitutional reform. [8] National Patriotic Party leader Jewel Taylor stated that she would vote against all four amendments, believing that the residency clause amendment discriminated against recent returnees and the extension of judge tenure would delay replacement of the country's judges with more qualified appointees. [9] Congress for Democratic Change presidential candidate Winston Tubman called for a boycott of the referendum, calling into question its constitutionality, the impartiality of NEC Chairman Fromayan, and the feasibility of holding the referendum so near to the 2011 elections. [10] [11] Tubman later backed away from calling for an outright boycott, while still expressing opposition to the amendments. [12]

Voting

President Sirleaf declared the day of the referendum a public holiday. [13] The referendum was overseen by 1,949 registered domestic and international observers, including officials from the National Democratic Institute, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the African Union Civil Society Group and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). [14] Voting was held at 4,457 stations across the country and proceeded peacefully, with only a single isolated incident of violence reported in Barclayville. [14] However, the vote was marked by low turnout and confusion regarding the reasons for the referendum. [15] Several women's advocacy groups criticized the government for a lack of awareness among women regarding the referendum. [16]

Several voters called into local radio stations on the day of the referendum to report that their ballots had a significant error on them, with one question asking whether the voter wanted to increase judges' retirement age from "75 to 75 years" rather than the correct "70 to 75 years." NEC officials acknowledged and apologized for the error, noting that the ballots had been printed in Denmark and thus the error had been discovered after the printing had been completed. The NEC also stated that polling stations with the incorrect ballots had posted clarifications. [17] NEC Chairman Fromayan later told reporters that the error would have no impact on the results of the referendum. [18]

Results

The official results were scheduled to be released on 7 September 2011. [14] However, the NEC finished counting one week ahead of schedule and released the results on 31 August 2011. [19] The NEC declared that none of the four amendments gathered the required two-thirds majority necessary for ratification. [20]

However, following the referendum, Unity Party Chairman Varney Sherman and Senator Fredrick Cherue of River Gee County filed a petition to the Supreme Court seeking a writ of prohibition to overturn the NEC's certification of the defeat of Proposition 4 regarding the method of elections. The plaintiffs argued that the NEC had improperly counted invalid votes as "no" votes in their computations of the results. Had invalid votes been excluded from the computations, the percentage of "yes" votes for Proposition 4 would have been 67.65% of the valid votes, more than the two-thirds necessary for ratification. On 20 September, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sherman and Cherue and declared that Proposition 4 had been ratified. [21]

#DescriptionForAgainstInvalid/
blank		TotalRegistered
voters		TurnoutOutcome
Votes%Votes%
52(c)Reducing presidential residency requirement from 10 to 5 years.292,31854.25246,47345.7576,912615,7031,798,93034.2Rejected
72(b)Increasing mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 75.221,16340.70322,22359.3072,317Rejected
83(a)Moving election date to the second Tuesday of November.307,64756.74234,51743.2673,539Rejected
83(b)Using single-round first-past-the-post voting for all legislative and municipal elections.364,90167.65174,46932.3576,333Approved
Source: African Elections Database

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Initiative</span> Concept in political science

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a public vote in the legislature in what is called indirect initiative, or under direct initiative, where the proposition is put to a plebiscite or referendum, in what is called a Popular initiated Referendum or citizen-initiated referendum.

A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, they can be appended to the constitution as supplemental additions, thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of Liberia</span> Head of state and government of Liberia

The president of the Republic of Liberia is the head of state and government of Liberia. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of Egypt</span> Head of state and government of Egypt

The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the president is also the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government. The current president is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been in office since 8 June 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Oregon</span> Governing document of the state of Oregon, enacted in 1857

The Oregon Constitution is the governing document of the U.S. state of Oregon, originally enacted in 1857. As amended the current state constitution contains eighteen sections, beginning with a bill of rights. This contains most of the rights and privileges protected by the United States Bill of Rights and the main text of the United States Constitution. The remainder of the Oregon Constitution outlines the divisions of power within the state government, lists the times of elections, and defines the state boundaries and the capital as Salem.

A double majority is a voting system which requires a majority of votes according to two separate criteria. The mechanism is usually used to require strong support for any measure considered to be of great importance. Typically in legislative bodies, a double majority requirement exists in the form of a quorum being necessary for legislation to be passed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California ballot proposition</span> Statewide referendum item in California

In California, a ballot proposition is a referendum or an initiative measure that is submitted to the electorate for a direct decision or direct vote. If passed, it can alter one or more of the articles of the Constitution of California, one or more of the 29 California Codes, or another law in the California Statutes by clarifying current or adding statute(s) or removing current statute(s).

In the politics of the United States, the process of initiatives and referendums allow citizens of many U.S. states to place new legislation, or to place legislation that has recently been passed by a legislature on a ballot for a popular vote. Initiatives and referendums, along with recall elections and popular primary elections, are signature reforms of the Progressive Era; they are written into several state constitutions, particularly in the West. It is a form of direct democracy.

The current Constitution of the State of Maryland, which was ratified by the people of the state on September 18, 1867, forms the basic law for the U.S. state of Maryland. It replaced the short-lived Maryland Constitution of 1864 and is the fourth constitution under which the state has been governed. It was amended in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions</span>

Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions of several different types passed, banning legal recognition of same-sex unions in U.S. state constitutions, referred to by proponents as "defense of marriage amendments" or "marriage protection amendments." These state amendments are different from the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage in every U.S. state, and Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, more commonly known as DOMA, which allowed the states not to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The amendments define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and prevent civil unions or same-sex marriages from being legalized, though some of the amendments bar only the latter. The Obergefell decision in June 2015 invalidated these state constitutional amendments insofar as they prevented same-sex couples from marrying, even though the actual text of these amendments remain written into the state constitutions.

The Constitution of Arkansas is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Arkansas delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Arkansas' original constitution was adopted at a constitutional convention held at Little Rock in advance of the territory's admission to the Union in 1836. The current constitution was ratified in 1874 following the Brooks–Baxter War.

State ratifying conventions are one of the two methods established by Article V of the United States Constitution for ratifying proposed constitutional amendments. The only amendment that has been ratified through this method thus far is the 21st Amendment in 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Mississippi</span> Supreme law of Mississippi, US

The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constitutional convention held at Washington, Mississippi in advance of the western portion of the territory's admission to the Union in 1817. The current state constitution was adopted in 1890 following the reconstruction period. It has been amended and updated 100 times in since its adoption in 1890, with some sections being changed or repealed altogether. The most recent modification to the constitution occurred in November 2020, when Section 140 was amended, and Sections 141-143 were repealed.

The Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment, also known as Tennessee Amendment 1 of 2006, is a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions. The referendum was approved by 81% of voters. It specified that only a marriage between a man and a woman could be legally recognized in the state of Tennessee. This prohibited same-sex marriages within the state, reinforcing previously existing statutes to the same effect until it was overturned by the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in June 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona ballot proposition</span> Proposed laws presented to voters for approval

A ballot proposition in the state of Arizona refers to any legislation brought before the voters of the state for approval.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Liberia</span> Supreme law of the Republic of Liberia

The Constitution of Liberia is the supreme law of the Republic of Liberia. The current constitution, which came into force on 6 January 1986, replaced the Liberian Constitution of 1847, which had been in force since the independence of Liberia. Much like the 1847 Constitution, the Constitution creates a system of government heavily modeled on the Federal Government of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1911 California Proposition 7</span> Amendment to the Constitution of California adding the initiative and optional referendum

Proposition 7 of 1911 was an amendment of the Constitution of California that introduced, for the first time, the initiative and the optional referendum. Prior to 1911 the only form of direct democracy in California was the compulsory referendum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Liberian general election</span> General election held in Liberia

General elections were held in Liberia on 11 October 2011, with a second round of the presidential election on 8 November. The presidency, as well as all seats in the House of Representatives and half of the seats in the Senate, were up for election. The election was overseen by the National Elections Commission (NEC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 California Proposition 59</span> California ballot proposition

California Proposition 59 is a non-binding advisory question that appeared on the 2016 California November general election ballot. It asked voters if they wanted California to work towards overturning the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Liberian constitutional referendum</span>

A constitutional referendum was held in Liberia on 8 December 2020 alongside Senate elections and two by-elections to the House of Representatives. It had been planned for 13 October, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters were asked whether they approved of eight amendments to the constitution, voting separately on each one. Although a majority of valid votes were in favour for each proposal, the two-thirds quorum was not met for any proposal.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Liberia to Conduct National Referendum Ahead 2011 Elections". Shout-Africa. September 22, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "NEC Somersaults, Now Says Referendum Suddenly 'Possible' Before 2011". FrontPageAfrica. September 22, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Liberia: National Referendum Imminent". allAfrica.com. July 14, 2010.
  4. ↑ Toweh, Alphonso (July 26, 2011). "Liberia's Johnson-Sirleaf confident of winning new term". Reuters.
  5. ↑ "Liberia cannot afford local polls". BBC News. January 14, 2008.
  6. ↑ "National Referendum Campaign Declared Open". allAfrica.com. May 2, 2011.
  7. ↑ "12 May President's Press Conference". The Executive Mansion. May 12, 2011. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011.
  8. ↑ Kolleh, David B. (May 4, 2011). "Brumskine, LP Say Yes to Referendum". FrontPageAfrica. Archived from the original on March 17, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  9. ↑ Butty, James (August 17, 2011). "Liberian Lawmaker to Vote 'No' in Constitutional Referendum". Voice of America.
  10. ↑ Stearns, Scott (August 2, 2011). "Liberian Opposition Party Challenges Electoral Commission's Neutrality". Voice of America.
  11. ↑ Kolleh, David (July 31, 2011). "Referendum Boycott - CDC Wants Partisans to Stay Away, Term it Unconstitutional". FrontPageAfrica.
  12. ↑ Daygbor, E. J. Nathaniel (August 22, 2011). "Tubman Somersaults On Referendum". The New Dawn. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  13. ↑ "August 23, 2011 is "Referendum Day"; to be observed as National Holiday". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. August 22, 2011. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  14. 1 2 3 "Provisional Results". National Elections Commission. August 25, 2011. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  15. ↑ McClanahan, Paige (August 24, 2011). "Liberia's referendum goes off peacefully, despite opposition boycott". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  16. ↑ Quabo, Edith; Tequah, Conscience; B’Musa, Senneh (August 25, 2011). "Low Female Turnout at Referendum". Daily Observer. Retrieved August 25, 2011.[ permanent dead link ]
  17. ↑ Paye-Layleh, Jonathan (August 23, 2011). "Liberian referendum marred by ballot error". Associated Press. Google News. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  18. ↑ Butty, James (August 24, 2011). "Ballot Error no Impact on Referendum Results, Says Elections Chief". Voice of America. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
  19. ↑ "Final Results of the National Referendum". National Elections Commission. August 31, 2011. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  20. ↑ "Liberia voters reject all 4 items on referendum". Associated Press. Google News. August 31, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  21. ↑ Binda, Stephen (September 21, 2011). "Supreme Court Ratifies Simple Majority Votes". Daily Observer. Retrieved September 21, 2011.[ permanent dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.