A constitutional referendum was held in

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

on 8 December 2020 alongside Senate elections and two by-elections to the House of Representatives. It had been planned for 13 October, but was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Voters were asked whether they approved of eight amendments to the constitution, voting separately on each one. Although a majority of valid votes were in favour for each proposal, the two-thirds quorum was not met for any proposal.

Background

The government had planned to bundle the eight amendments into three questions, with one question on amending article 28 (citizenship), one on amending articles 45, 47, 48, 49 and 50 on the terms of office of the President, Senate and House of Representatives, and one on amending article 83 to change the date of general elections and decrease the time the Elections Commission has to investigate complaints.Supreme Court Dumps Referendum
Daily Observer, 19 November 2020 However, this was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, as article 92 requires amendments to be voted on separately. This was taken by many to mean the referendum was cancelled. However, Solicitor-General Syrenius Cephus claimed the ruling meant that if the questions were unbundled, the referendum could go ahead. The National Elections Commission subsequently began printing new ballot papers with the amendments separated out. The opposition Collaborating Political Parties attempted to appeal to the Supreme Court, but were unsuccessful. Despite reports the changes would lead to

George Weah George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah (; born 1 October 1966) is a Liberian politician and former professional footballer who is the incumbent president of Liberia, in office since 2018. Prior to his election to the presidency, Weah served a ...

's third presidential term like in other Western African neighbors, Weah denied the move.

Proposed amendments

*Article 28: Amend the constitutional rights of citizenship. Citizenship is granted automatically if both parents were Liberian citizens at the time of their birth; the amendments proposed require only one parent to be a Liberian citizen, removes the ability of the government to legislate to remove citizenship of natural born citizens and prohibits citizens with dual citizenship from holding senior positions, including justices of the Supreme Court, ministerial positions, heads of government agencies, ambassadorships and the chief of staff and deputy chief of staff of the military. *Article 45: Reducing Senators' terms from nine to seven years *Article 47: Reducing the term of the President of the Senate from six to five years *Article 48: Reducing the term of the House of Representatives from six to five years. *Article 49: Reducing the term of the Speaker of the House of Representatives from six to five years *Article 50: Reducing the term of the President from six to five years *Article 83: Change the date of general elections from the second Tuesday in October to the second Tuesday in November to avoid the rainy season *Article 83: Decrease the time the Elections Commission has to investigate complaints from thirty to fifteen days

Results

Partial results coming from a third of country's regions showed that the amendments on reducing the term of presidency and allowing dual citizenship won a majority of votes. According to National Election Commission, voters said yes to all eight questions asked on the referendum in five of fifteen counties in the country.Liberians approve constitutional referendum pushed by President Weah
Africa News, 17 December 2020 Final results were released on 1 April 2021, with a narrow majority in favour of all eight proposals, but none meeting the two-thirds quorum required, resulting in all proposals being rejected.

References

External links

Liberia, 8. Dezember 2020 : Doppelte Staatsangehörigkeit
Direct Democracy {{Liberian elections

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

Referendums in Liberia