 |
|---|
A constitutional referendum was held in Luxembourg on 7 June 2015. [1] Although the referendum was non-binding, the government said they would adhere to the result. All three proposed constitutional amendments were ultimately rejected by voters.
| |
|---|
A constitutional referendum was held in Luxembourg on 7 June 2015. [1] Although the referendum was non-binding, the government said they would adhere to the result. All three proposed constitutional amendments were ultimately rejected by voters.
Voters were asked three questions: [2]
Another intended question was abandoned after an agreement between the Luxembourgish government and the religious representatives in January 2015:
A "yes" (jo) vote to all three questions was supported by the three governing parties (Democratic Party, Socialist Workers' Party and The Greens), as well as by The Left and the Pirate Party. A "no" (nee) vote to all questions was supported by the conservative Alternative Democratic Reform Party. The largest political party, the Christian Social People's Party, also supported three "no" votes but emphasised that voters should be well-informed before voting.
A March 2015 poll indicated support for the third question, but not for the first and second ones. [3]
| Question | For | Against | Invalid/ blank | Total | Registered voters | Turnout | Outcome | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||||
| Lowering the voting age to 16 | 40,102 | 19.13 | 169,899 | 80.87 | 4,835 | 214,836 | 246,974 | 86.99 | Rejected |
| Right of foreigners to vote | 46,031 | 21.98 | 163,362 | 78.02 | 5,443 | Rejected | |||
| Introducing term limits | 62,835 | 30.07 | 146,096 | 69.93 | 5,905 | Rejected | |||
| Source: Government of Luxembourg | |||||||||
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding or advisory.
National referendums are seldom used in Canada. The first two referendums in 1898 and 1942 saw a large number of voters in Quebec and in the remainder of Canada take dramatically-opposing stands, and the third in 1992 saw most of the voters take a stand opposed to that of the party in power.
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. Legally there is no constitutional requirement to hold a national referendum for any purpose or on any issue. However, the UK Parliament is free to legislate through an Act of Parliament for a referendum to be held on any question at any time.
France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with a bicameral legislature. Public officials in the legislative and executive branches are either elected by the citizens or appointed by elected officials. Referenda may also be called to consult the French citizenry directly on a particular question, especially one which concerns amendment to the Constitution.
A referendum, in the Italian legal system is a request directed to the whole electorate to express their view on a determined question. It is the main instrument of direct democracy in Italy.
Elections in Belgium are organised for legislative bodies only, and not for executive functions. Direct elections take place for the European Parliament, the Chamber of Representatives, the Parliaments of the Regions, the Parliaments of the Communities, the provincial councils, the municipal councils and the councils of Districts of Antwerp. Voting is mandatory in federal elections, and all elections use proportional representation which in general requires coalition governments.
In Australia, referendums are public votes held on important issues where the electorate may approve or reject a certain proposal. In contemporary usage, polls conducted on non-constitutional issues are known as plebiscites, with the term referendum being reserved solely for votes on constitutional changes, which is legally required to make a change to the Constitution of Australia.
Elections in Luxembourg are held to determine the political composition of the representative institutions of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a liberal representative democracy, with universal suffrage guaranteed under its constitution. Elections are held regularly, and are considered to be fair and free.
Elections in Lithuania are held to select members of the parliament, the president, members of the municipal councils and mayors, as well as delegates to the European Parliament. Lithuanian citizens can also vote in mandatory or consultative referendums.
Malta elects on a national level 6 MEPs representing Malta in the European Parliament, on a district level the legislature, on a local level the local councils, and on a community level the Administrative Committees.
A presidential impeachment referendum was held in Romania on 19 May 2007 in order to determine whether president Traian Băsescu should be forced to step down.
The Italian electoral law of 2015, also known as Italicum, was an Italian electoral law passed in 2015. The law, which came into force on 1 July 2016, regulated only the election of the Chamber of Deputies, replacing the Italian electoral law of 2005, which had been ruled partly unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Italy in December 2013. It provided for a two-round system based on party-list proportional representation, including a majority bonus and a 3% election threshold. Candidates would have run in 100 multi-member constituencies using open lists. The largest party which won over 40% of the vote would automatically win a majority of seats; if no party won 40% of seats, a second round of voting would be held between the two largest parties, with the winner of the second round winning a majority of seats. The name "Italicum" was coined in 2014 by Democratic Party secretary and later Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, who was one of the legislation's main proponent.
The Maulkuerfgesetz was a proposed 1937 law in Luxembourg. Officially, it was entitled the "Law for the Defence of the Political and Social Order" but was nicknamed Maulkuerfgesetz by its opponents. The law would have allowed the Luxembourgish government to ban the Communist Party and dissolve any political organisation which they believed might endanger the constitutional institutions. The members of these parties or organisations would be stripped of their political offices and could not be employed by the state or by local governments.
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This article summarises referendum laws and practice in various countries.
The First Bettel Government was the ruling government of Luxembourg from 4 December 2013 to 5 December 2018. It was led by Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider. It was formed on 4 December 2013, after the 2013 election which saw all 60 seats in the Chamber of Deputies renewed. The government was a traffic light coalition between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) and The Greens. It was succeeded by second Bettel Government on 5 December 2018.
An Icelandic Constitutional Council (Stjórnlagaráð) for the purpose of reviewing the Constitution of the Republic was appointed by a resolution of Althingi, the Icelandic parliament, on 24 March 2011. Elections were held to create a Constitutional Assembly (Stjórnlagaþing) body, but given some electoral flaws, had been ruled null and void by the Supreme Court of Iceland on 25 January 2011, leading the parliament to place most of the winning candidates into a Constitutional Council with similar mission. The question of whether the text of the proposed constitution should form a base for a future constitution was put to a non-binding referendum, where it won the approval of 67% of voters. However, the government's term finished before the reform bill could be passed, and following governments have not acted upon it.
Non-resident citizen voting is citizens voting in elections according to their citizenship while not residing in the country of the election. As of 2020 a total of 141 countries grant non-residents such as emigrants or expatriates the right to non-resident citizen voting. There is considerable variation across countries in regard to voter eligibility, voting modalities, i.e. voting in person at diplomatic missions or other physical locations, by post or online, which elections nonresident citizens may vote in, i.e. elections of the national legislature, executive elections, referendums, or sub-national elections, and how nonresident citizen voters are represented. The number of countries enfranchising nonresident citizens accelerated significantly in the 1990s. Social scientists have advanced a number of claims about the causes and consequences of this development and debated its normative implications or pros and cons of nonresident citizen voting.
General elections were held in Luxembourg on 14 October 2018. All 60 seats of the Chamber of Deputies were renewed.
The Italian electoral law of 2017, colloquially known by the nickname Rosatellum after Ettore Rosato, the Democratic Party (PD) leader in the Chamber of Deputies who first proposed the new law, is a parallel voting system, which acts as a mixed electoral system, with 37% of seats allocated using a first-past-the-post electoral system and 63% using a proportional method, with one round of voting. The Chamber and Senate of the Republic did not differ in the way they allocated the proportional seats, both using the largest remainder method of allocating seats.
The law no. 270 of 21 December 2005 was a proportional electoral law with a majority prize and blocked lists that regulated the election of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in Italy in 2006, 2008 and 2013.
Media related to Luxembourg Referendum 2015 at Wikimedia Commons| General elections |
|
|---|---|
| Communal elections | |
| European elections | |
| Referendums | |
* Partial elections | |
