A constitutional

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 ...

, officially referred to as the referendum to lower the age of criminal responsibility (), was held in Uruguay on 26 October 2014, alongside

general elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

. Voters were asked whether Article 43 of 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 ...

should be amended to lower the

age of criminal responsibility The age of criminal responsibility is the age below which a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence. In legal terms, it is referred to as a defence/defense of infancy, which is a form of defense known as an excuse so t ...

from 18 to 16. The proposal was rejected by 53% of voters.

Background

During the electoral campaign for the 2009 elections, security was a significant issue, with criticism of the Broad Front government from the two main opposition parties, the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

and the Colorado Party, regarding its handling of the issue. Towards the second half of 2010, several bills had been created that were aimed at modifying the legal framework that governs crimes committed by young people between 16 and 18 years of age, either by toughening the penalties, judging them as adults, or maintaining their legal record once they came of age. On 17 April 2012, the signatures aimed at enabling a plebiscite were delivered to the Electoral Court, which were verified on 6 September, exceeding the 250,000 (10% of those authorized to vote) necessary to hold the vote.

Results

References

2014 referendums 2014 in Uruguay

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Constitutional referendums in Uruguay October 2004 in South America {{Uruguay-election-stub