Liberian constitutional referendum, 2011

A constitutional referendum was held on August 23, 2011 in Liberia. The voters had to decide on four constitutional amendments. They related to:

• The term of office of judges
• The requirements for candidacy for the presidency

And

• On the electoral system.

The National Electoral Commission NEC (National Elections Commission) was responsible for the proper conduct of the voting.

The NEC announced on August 31 that none of the four constitutional amendments by the necessary two-thirds majority of voters had been confirmed. The Chairman of the Unity Party, Varney Sherman, and Senator Fredrick Cherue from County River Gee then made ​​a submission to the Supreme Court of the country with the aim of the NEC statement that the proposal number 4 had failed to pick up. Proposal number 4 said that in the future should apply the principle of simple majority for all elections except the presidential election (as opposed to the previous principle of absolute majority). They argued here that the Election Commission had counted unconstitutional invalid ballots in its calculation of the results. The Supreme Court ruled on 20 September that the Electoral Commission actually made ​​a mistake in calculating the results and the proposal number 4 is assumed.

Background

Previously, both houses of the bicameral system of Liberia ( House and Senate ) had decided the four amendments to the Constitution on August 17, 2010. According to Article 91 ( a) of the Constitution of Liberia, these supplements had to be confirmed in each case by two -thirds of the registered voters within a year in a referendum. Article 91 ( b ) also states that, even if several constitutional amendments be queried in a referendum to be voted on every single supplement it separately.

Originally, the NEC Chairman James M. Fromayan had announced that the referendum would not take place before the scheduled 11 October 2011 legislative and presidential elections because the estimated cost for the implementation of both votes in close temporal proximity would prohibit this. However, he revised his position in September 2010 on the grounds that in 2011 65 % could be taken from a fund of the estimated 69 million U.S. dollar cost of the elections, which had been intended for the implementation of run-off elections for seats in the House of Representatives. He led the process that the Fund is not set to run-off elections, and that one of the constitutional amendments to be voted upon acceptance also (some ) future ballots would make superfluous. After the government and foreign donors had agreed to finance, the electoral commission some 23 August 2011 as the polling day.

Proposed constitutional amendments

• Residence requirement for presidential and vice presidential candidates: Article 52 ( c ) of the Constitution demands that can be only stand as a presidential and vice presidential candidate, who has been resident in Liberia, at least in the 10 years before the election. The proposed amendment would have shortened the residence obligation to 5 years and specifies that five continuous years have meant immediately before the election.

• Office of the Chief Justice: The office of the Chief Justice are defined in Article 72 ( b ) of the Liberian Constitution. Thereafter, the Chief Justices and their associated judge of the Supreme Court and judges of subordinate courts must resign at the age of 72 years. The proposed amendment would have increased this mandatory retirement age to 75 years.

• Date of the elections: election dates are currently in Article 83 ( a) regulated, which states that the general election for the office of President, the Vice President, to be held to the Senate or the House of Representatives liberia far on the second Tuesday in October of the election year. However, this date is the end of the rainy season, causing logistical problems. The proposed amendment would have moved the date for national elections on the second Tuesday in November. In addition to - due to the return on the validity of the Constitution of 2005 - the elections for mayor, city council members and various levels of traditional leaders are still held. 2008 approved by the Supreme Court of Liberia, that as long as the land is not able to perform municipal elections, the President may appoint, in consultation with local leaders mayor. The court also announced that the Electoral Commission should organize the holding of such elections, when the country was to financially capable. As the Constitution prescribes no deadline for these local elections, the proposed constitutional amendment had provided to carry out these elections three years after presidential elections.

• Electoral system: Article 83 ( b ) prescribes a two -round system for presidential and Senate and parliamentary elections. These elections should be decided by each absolute majorities. No candidate achieved an absolute majority, to be held after Election Day on the 2nd Tuesday of a runoff between the two top ranked. To save costs, this article has not been applied in the parliamentary elections, the candidates then gave a simple majority. The proposed constitutional amendment would have established this procedure for elections to the Parliament and Senate and local elections, the two- round system would have remained only for presidential elections.

Political positions

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had announced their support for all four constitutional amendments, but denotes the additive with respect to a simple majority because of its financial impact in parliamentary and senate elections as the only crucial suggestion. The opposition Liberty Party also announced its support for the supplements, but called for further reforms. The leader of the National Patriotic Party, Jewel Taylor, spoke out against all four supplements because they think the residential duty clause in discriminating against candidates recently returned Liberians and the extent of the possible tenure of judges prevents hiring qualified talent. Presidential candidate Winston Tubman of the Congress for Democratic Change called for a boycott of the referendum, since he also doubted its constitutionality as the independence of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission and the feasibility of the referendum so close to the date of the remaining elections in 2011. Later Tubman withdrew its call for a boycott, turned but nevertheless against all four proposed constitutional amendments.

Implementation

President Sirleaf told the Referendumstag a national holiday. The referendum was monitored from 1949 registered local and international observers, including observers from the National Democratic Institute, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the African Union and ECOWAS. There were 4457 polling stations in the country. The referendum passed - with an isolated exception in Barclayville - peacefully. However, it was also characterized by low turnout and lack of clarity about the reason for the referendum.

Some voters complained in local radio broadcasts faulty imprints on ballots in which the speech was about from a higher age of the judges "from 75 to 75 years." The Election Commission apologized for this error on the printed labels in Denmark and pointed out that the faulty imprints in the respective polling stations were explained. According to the Wahlkonmmission this error had no effect on the outcome of the referendum.

Results

The Electoral Commission announced the results of a week late on August 31, 2011. She explained that none of the four proposed constitutional amendments have reached the necessary majority.

Review of the decision of the Electoral Commission by the Supreme Court

After the referendum aimed Varney Sherman, Chairman of the Unity Party, and Senator Fredrick Cherue from the River Gee County a petition against the decision of the Electoral Commission concerning the fourth proposal ( voting system ) to the Supreme Court. They argued that the Commission unlawfully invalid votes have counted as no votes. Without this count of invalid votes the fourth proposal would have achieved with 67.65 % of the valid votes the required two - thirds majority. On September 20, the Supreme Court agreed with this action and declared the fourth proposal for ratification.

Swell

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• Election in Liberia
• 2011 election
• Constitutional Referendum