Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
2007 Malagasy constitutional referendum
Constitutional referendum From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
A constitutional referendum was held in Madagascar on 4 April 2007.[1] The proposed changes, which voters were asked to approve or reject as a whole,[2] included:
- expansion of presidential powers in cases of emergency
- abolition of the six autonomous provinces in favor of 22 smaller areas (faritra or regions), a change that is intended to facilitate regional development
- adoption of English as an official language (in addition to the two existing official languages, French and Malagasy)[3]
- removal of the phrase "secular state" (French: état laïque) from the Constitution[3]
Early results, with 73.18% of the vote counted, showed that turnout was around 42.43%. The referendum appeared likely to be passed because 74.93% of the voters in Antananarivo were in favour of the amendments, even though it seemed likely that in four of the five other provinces the "no" vote might have won.[4] According to results released on 7 April, with votes from 85.47% of polling stations counted, 75.24% were in favor of the proposed changes. Roland Ratsiraka, who placed third in the 2006 presidential election and opposed the proposed changes, alleged fraud.[5]
Official results were released on 11 April, but it was necessary for the Constitutional High Court to validate the results in order for them to be final,[6] and this happened on 27 April.[7]
The Judged By Your Work Party (AVI) chose to boycott the referendum, saying that it was deceitful for the referendum to describe a "yes" vote as being a vote for national development.[8]
Remove ads
Results
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads