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Liberian Constitutional Referendum, 2011
A Liberian Constitutional Referendum consisting of four propositions was on the ballot for voters in Liberia on August 23, 2011.[1]
Voters decided changes on four provisions within the Liberian Constitution:[1][2]
- Proposition 1 would have reduced the residential requirements for presidential and vice-presidential candidates from 10 years to 5 years.
- Proposition 2 would have increased the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75.
- Proposition 3 would have changed the national election date from the second Tuesday in October to the second Tuesday in November.
- Proposition 4 enacted one-round, plurality (or first-past-the-post) systems for legislative and municipal elections.
A two-thirds (66.67%) vote was required for the approval of each proposition.
Aftermath
Proposition 4, along with the other three propositions, was initially reported as defeated. The Unity Party Chairman Varney Sherman and Senator Fredrick Cherue of River Gee County filed a petition to the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the NEC's certification of the results of Proposition 4. The plaintiffs argued that the NEC had incorrectly counted invalid votes as "no" votes and that if invalid votes had been properly excluded from either the "yes" or "no" vote totals, the approval rate for Proposition 4 would have exceeded the required two-thirds (66.67%) vote. On September 20, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sherman and Cherue, overturning the NEC's results and declaring Proposition 4 approved.[3]
Election results
A two-thirds (66.67%) vote was required for the approval of each proposition.
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See also
Additional reading
- All Africa, "Looking Inside from Outside - the August 23 National Referendum," August 17, 2011
- All Africa, "Liberia: National Referendum Campaign Declared Open," May 2, 2011
- Wikipedia: 2011 Liberian constitutional referendum
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 African Elections Database, "23 August 2011 Referendum,"
- ↑ Shout Africa, "Liberia to Conduct National Referendum Ahead 2011 Elections," September 22, 2010
- ↑ Daily Observer, "Supreme Court Ratifies Simple Majority Votes," retrieved September 21, 2011 (link unavailable)
- ↑ These are the final certified results following supreme court ruling overturning the NEC's originally certified results.
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