Liberian constitutional referendum, 2011

Last updated
Liberia
Coat of arms of Liberia.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Liberia

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.

Unity Party (Liberia) Liberian political party

The Unity Party (UP) is a political party in Liberia that was started in 1984 by Edward B. Kesselly, also its first standard bearer. Officially founded at Buchanan in Grand Bassa County, the party was established on 27 July 1985. The Unity Party participated in the first elections after the 1980 coup, running against President Samuel Doe in October 1985. The party has remained active in Liberian politics since and was, until 2017, the ruling party.

Harry Varney Gboto-Nambi Sherman is a Liberian politician and the current chairman of the Unity Party.

River Gee County County in Fish Town, Liberia

River Gee is a county in the southern portion of Liberia. One of 15 counties that constitute the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has six districts. Fish Town serves as the capital with the area of the county measuring 5,113 square kilometres (1,974 sq mi). As of the 2008 Census, it had a population of 66,789, making it the third-least populous county in Liberia. It was created in 2000.

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.

Legislature of Liberia

The Legislature of Liberia is the bicameral legislature of the government of Liberia. It consists of a Senate – the upper house, and a House of Representatives – the lower house, modeled after the United States Congress. Sessions are held at the Capitol Building in Monrovia. Legislature of Liberia is considered one of the three branches of government based on the Article III of the Constitution of Liberia that stipulates all three branches ought to be equal and coordinated based on the Principle of checks and balances.

Constitution 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.

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]

Mandatory retirement also known as enforced retirement, is the set age at which people who hold certain jobs or offices are required by industry custom or by law to leave their employment, or retire.

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]

e  •  d  Results of 23 August 2011 Liberian constitutional referendum [19]
AmendmentDescriptionYesNoInvalid or blank
Votes%Votes%Votes%
Amendment to Article 52(c)Reducing presidential residency requirement from 10 to 5 years.292,31847.48%246,47340.03%76,91212.49%
Amendment to Article 72(b)Increasing mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 75.221,16335.92%322,22352.33%72,31711.75%
Amendment to Article 83(a)Moving election date to the second Tuesday of November.307,64749.97%234,51738.09%73,53911.94%
Amendment to Article 83(b)Using single-round first-past-the-post voting for all legislative and municipal elections.364,90159.27%174,46928.34%76,33312.40%
Total ballots cast 615,703
Voter turnout 34.22%

Supreme Court ruling

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]

Related Research Articles

Politics of Liberia

Politics of Liberia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic modeled on the government of the United States, whereby the President is the head of state and head of government; unlike the United States, however, Liberia is a unitary state as opposed to a federation and has a pluriform multi-party system rather than the two-party system that characterizes US politics. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the legislature.

Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution amendment

The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the President and Vice President. It replaced the procedure provided in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, by which the Electoral College originally functioned. The amendment was proposed by the Congress on December 9, 1803, and was ratified by the requisite three-fourths of state legislatures on June 15, 1804. The new rules took effect for the 1804 presidential election and have governed all subsequent presidential elections.

Initiative means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote in parliament called an indirect initiative or via a direct initiative, the latter then being dubbed a Popular 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 (codicils), thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document.

President of Liberia Wikimedia list article

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.

California ballot proposition statewide referendum item in California

In California, a ballot proposition can be 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 on a popular ballot, 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.

Elections in France

France is a representative democracy. Public officials in the legislative and executive branches are either elected by the citizens or appointed by elected officials. Referendums may also be called to consult the French citizenry directly on a particular question, especially one which concerns amendment to the Constitution.

2004 California Proposition 60A

Proposition 60A was an amendment of the Constitution of California, enacted in 2004, relating to funds from the sale of government property. It was proposed by the California Legislature and approved by the voters in a referendum held as part of the November 2004 election, by a majority of 73%.

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.

2005 Liberian general election

The 2005 Liberian general election was held on 11 October 2005, with a runoff election for the presidency held on 8 November of that year. The presidency, as well as all seats in the House of Representatives and Senate were up for election. The election marked the end of the political transition following Liberia's second civil war and had been stipulated in the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2003. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former World Bank employee and Liberian finance minister, won the presidential contest and became the first democratically elected female African head of state in January 2006.

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.

The single-subject rule is a rule in the constitutional law of some jurisdictions that stipulates that some or all types of legislation may deal with only one main issue. One purpose is to avoid complexity in laws, to avoid any hidden consequences that legislators or voters may miss when reading the proposed law. Another is to prevent legislators attaching an unpopular provision ("rider") to an unrelated popular one, whether in the hope of sneaking the unpopular one through, or in the hope of causing the popular one to be rejected.

Proposition 2 was a referendum for a state constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by the Texas legislature and approved by the voters at the November 8, 2005 general election. The measure added a new provision to the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 32, which provides that "Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman", and "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Texas thus became the nineteenth US state to adopt constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. It was the most populous state to adopt a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage until California passed its ban in November 2008.

1911 California Proposition 7

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.

2011 Liberian general election

The 2011 Liberian general election was held on 11 October 2011, with a presidential runoff election held on 8 November 2011. 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).

The following lists events that happened during 2005 in Liberia.

2016 California Proposition 59

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.

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.
  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. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  14. 1 2 3 "Provisional Results". National Elections Commission. August 25, 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. 1 2 "Final Results of the National Referendum". National Elections Commission. August 31, 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.