2035 Saren Referendums
In accordance with the Sections 108 to 113 of the Saren Constitution, public petitioners may trigger a referendum to enact Citizen's Laws and Citizen's Amendments to the Constitution. Petitioners require the support of at least one member of the Parliament, and 8% of the electoral roll or 15% of the electoral roll with no Parliamentary support for Citizen's Law, while requiring 15% of the vote regardless of Parliamentary support for a Citizen Amendment to the Constitution. Parliament may also turn issues over to the public by majority vote. There are two scheduled 'Referendum Periods', in each half of the year, with the first Saturday of August, and first Saturday of February, reserved for use as polling day should a referendum be triggered.
The 2035 Referendums were the first since 2016, as no other issue had reached sufficient public support to trigger a referendum.
Procedure
Petitions must 'culminate in a referendum' within twelve months of the start date of petitioning. Any Saren Citizen may commence a petition on the SEC website, or lodge the paper form at any time in the year. The Referendums and Petitions Act 1919 dictates that all petitions commencing in the first half of year must either culminate for the August Referendum slot, or the item is blocked from public referendum for five years, while issues raised in the second half of the year must culminate by the February timeslot. In July of 2034 there were sixty-eight 'major' petitions begun, with almost half of these obtaining some Parliamentary support, petitioners have until the end of the commencing half of the year to reach the necessary threshold and receive a vote roughly five weeks later.
On 31 December 2034, at midnight, petitions began before then but after the 1st of July 2034, closed for signing and were tabulated by the Saren Electoral Commission. Of these, five had received suitable support. The High Court of Sarenium then certified the petitions that were to become Citizen's Law as Constitutionally Valid, while the two that were Constitutional Amendments were automatically progressed.
The 2034 cycle was particularly notable for the large number of petitions filed and the vast number of Sarens who became engaged in the process by signing petitions.
On January 11, 2035, all five referendum questions were unanimously accepted by the original petitioners, the Joint Parliamentary Committee Receiving Petitions, and the High Court of Sarenium, with referendum notices printed and mailed on January 15. The Electoral Roll closed simultaneously. Forty percent of the electorate requested an postal ballot by the 20 January deadline, these were received and due for return by 3 February. The Saren Postal Service was praised for it's handling of the large influx of express mail.
The Referendums and Petitions Act 1919 requires that Citizen's Laws and Citizen's Amendments are held to the same standard as that of Section 113 of the Saren Constitution. Section 113 requires that for passage, the majority of the vote in the majority of provinces, and a majority in the national vote, must be obtained for passage. This dual criteria has once defeated a Constitutional Amendment that had the support of the national popular vote but failed to pass in the majority of the provinces, in two other instances, the requirement has resulted in the failure of proposals that garnered the minority of the national vote but the support of the majority of Provinces.
A sixth referendum was held on the 'Parliamentary Terms - Amendment to the Constitution Act', which Parliament had passed the preceding year in line with Section 113 of the Saren Constitution. This referendum did not require petitioning as it was a Parliamentary initiated Constitutional Amendment.
Referendums and Results
Referendum on the Abolition of Decreed Senators
| 2035 Saren referendum (Abolition of Decreed Senators) 3 February 2035 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the proposed alteration of the Constitution which would abolish the presence of all Decreed Senators in the Senate of the United Republic? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yes
No
Filed for public contribution and petitioning from 2 July 2034, the petition to abolish Decreed Senators in the Saren Senate was the fifteenth attempt to do so since the formation of the United Republic. The last such effort took place in 1915 and failed to meet the dual criteria for passage of a Constitutional Amendment, winning the support of a majority of provinces but not a majority of the national vote.
The 2035 referendum saw an affirmative vote in all provinces, with the most supportive province being Madagascar where 78.92% supported the proposal, while the least supportive was Reia where 56.60% supported the proposal.
The original petitioners were filed as Raymond E. Selzer, Jasmine P. Settner and Aliya Erghozan, the petition obtained the support of 19.34% of the electoral roll as tabulated on January 1, 2035.
Referendum on the Restoration of the Nexus Rule
| 2035 Saren referendum (Restoration of the Nexus Rule) 3 February 2035 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the alteration of the Constitution which would restore the Nexus Rule, mandating that the Saren Senate be as practicably close to one third the size of the overall Parliament? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Filed for public contribution and petitioning from 2 July 2034, the petition to restore the Nexus Rule reversed an earlier repeal of the Nexus Rule in 1878. This referendum also invalidated a section of the Federal Election Act of 2003 which had capped the size of the Senate legislatively.
The 2035 referendum saw an affirmative vote in sixteen of twenty provinces, with the most supportive province being Harichia where 74.07% supported the proposal, while the greatest opposition was in Aegyptus where 52.37% opposed the proposal.
The original petitioners were filed as Erskine R. Humboldt & Claude Espinoza, the petition obtained the support of two sitting MPs, Senator Reyna Naziri of Lybiya and Justine Reillen MP of Tasman, as well as, 11.64% of the electoral roll as tabulated on January 1, 2035.
Referendum on the Issue of Refugee Entry
| 2035 Saren referendum (Refugee Entry) 3 February 2035 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the creation of a Citizen's Law which would guarantee a minimum number of 150,000 Refugees to be processed for resettlement annually? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Filed for public contribution and petitioning from 10 July 2034, the petition to create Citizen's Law in the area of Refugee Resettlement was failed by both the majority of provinces and a national majority against.
The 2035 referendum saw an affirmative vote in six of twenty provinces, with the most supportive province being Reia where 55.56% supported the proposal, while the greatest opposition was in Eastern Espagna where 62.32% opposed the proposal.
The original petitioners were filed as Larissa K. Skinner and Jamshid Eskarfarian, the petition obtained the support of a sitting MP, Nyman Wells MP of Reia, as well as, 8.91% of the electoral roll as tabulated on January 1, 2035.
Referendum on the Issue of Parliamentary Proportionality (Lower House)
| 2035 Saren referendum (Commons Proportionality) 3 February 2035 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the creation of a Citizen's Law which would require the House of Commons be elected using a Multi-Member Proportional System? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Filed for public contribution and petitioning from 10 July 2034, the petition to create Citizen's Law in the area of Commons Proportionality was failed by both the majority of provinces and a national majority against. This marked the twelfth attempt to introduce proportionality to the House of Commons since the initial attempt in 1966. Since then, all provinces have adopted their own forms of proportionality in their provincial assemblies with Taleia the last to do so in 2003. The lack of proportionality at a federal level has been attributed to the 'broad mainstream opposition to coalition governments reliant on fringe parties'.
The 2035 referendum saw an affirmative vote in none of twenty provinces, with the most supportive province being Aegyptus where 32.74% supported the proposal, while the greatest opposition was in Taleia where 83.37% opposed the proposal.
The original petitioners were filed as Rory P. E. Fallen and Joseph H. Jesus, the petition obtained the support of a sitting MP, Nyman Wells MP of Reia, as well as, 11.80% of the electoral roll as tabulated on January 1, 2035.
Referendum on the Issue of Parliamentary Proportionality (Upper House)
| 2035 Saren referendum (Senate Proportionality) 3 February 2035 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the creation of a Citizen's Law which would require the elected bench of the Senate be elected using a Single-Transferable Proportionality Vote? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Filed for public contribution and petitioning from 1 August 2034, the petition to create Citizen's Law in the area of Senate Proportionality was passed by both the majority of provinces and a national majority against. This marked the culmination of sixty years of political pressure to introduce proportionality to some element of federal elections since the 1966 petition on Commons Proportionality. The petition was originally intended as an amendment to the Nexus Petition, but as the Nexus Petition had already cleared a substantial section of the roll and federal law does not permit amendments to petitions once filed, the petitioners filed a second petition and campaigned for the passage of both as a single package.
The 2035 referendum saw an affirmative vote in nineteen of twenty provinces, with the most supportive province being Western Espagna where 67.61% supported the proposal, while the greatest opposition was in Leragaria where 50.06% opposed the proposal.
The original petitioners were filed as Erskine R. Humboldt & Claude Espinoza, the petition obtained the support of two sitting MPs, Senator Reyna Naziri of Lybiya and Justine Reillen MP of Tasman, as well as, 14.07% of the electoral roll as tabulated on January 1, 2035.
Referendum on the Expansion of the Parliamentary Term
| 2035 Saren referendum (Four-year Terms) 3 February 2035 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the alteration of the Constitution which would extend the term of House of Commons Members to a maximum of four years, and elected Senators to a maximum of eight years? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The original amendment passed in the House of Commons 862-90, with the majority of members in every political party supporting passage, on 4 November, 2034, and the Saren Senate 80-3 on 18 November, 2034.
Dispatched for referendum on the scheduled February referendum slot, this marked the eighteenth time either Parliament or a Citizen's Petition, has aimed to extend the term of the Parliament beyond the three years mandated within the original Constitution of Sarenium. The last such attempt took place in 1999 and was opposed by the then National Progressive Conservatives. The National Progressive Conservatives supported passage of this amendment in 2035. In 1908 an attempt to extend the term of the House to four years and elected members of the Senate to eight was defeated by a majority of provinces while carrying a majority of the national vote.
The 2035 referendum saw an affirmative vote in sixteen of twenty provinces, with the most supportive province being Eastern Espagna where 60.39% supported the proposal, while the greatest opposition was in Swynton where 65.38% opposed the proposal.
The amendment is slated to take effect from the next general election, resulting in the 163rd Parliament of Sarenium serving for four years.