A constitutional referendum was held in

Nauru Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, with its nearest neighbour being Banaba (part of ...

on 27 February 2010. Voters were asked to vote on amendments to the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

, most notably a change to a directly elected president (instead of one chosen by

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

) and a strengthening of human rights legislation (but also a clarification of the distribution of powers and other, less notable amendments). A two-thirds majority was required for the amendments to pass.Constitutional Review Project
Parliament of Nauru The referendum was part of a large-scale constitutional renewal; the referendum had to be held to approve changes to some especially protected parts of the constitution, while other changes were made by simple parliamentary vote. Any changes would only take effect on the day of the next general election, likely in May/June 2011. Turnout was 78%, with almost 4,400 votes cast; the constitutional changes were rejected by majority of two thirds, almost 3,000 votes. It was considered immediately afterwards whether another referendum might be held at a later time.

Results

References

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

Referendums in Nauru Constitutional referendums

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