General

7.1. Important and controversial governance and social issues shall be decided by referenda and plebiscites. 

7.2. Referenda and plebiscites may be initiated by the People in the form of a petition; by the President; by the National Parliament; or by five Regional Assemblies.

7.3. The procedure the People shall use to initiate referenda and plebiscites is prescribed in Schedule 3. 

7.4. Referenda initiated by Regional Assemblies shall be debated in the National Parliament and shall be returned with recommendations for amendment if required. Regional Assembly initiatives presented to the National Parliament for the second time without amendment shall be forwarded to the President.

7.5. Referenda shall be conducted within three months of being forwarded to the President.

7.6. Referenda passed by the People shall be implemented within three months of being passed.

This means that if the President is not satisfied that the Parliament is doing the right thing; he can resolve the issue by putting it to the People as a referendum.

Similarly, if the Parliament is satisfied that the President or the Executive is not implementing policies passed by the Parliament in an appropriate manner, the Parliament can have the People resolve the issue by voting at referendum.

Also, if five Regions have been unsuccessful in persuading the Parliament to pass what they consider to be desirable legislation, they can initiate a referendum to have the People decide the issue.

And last but not least, the People do not have to just hope that the Parliament or their Assembly will do what is required, or wait for the next election; they too can initiate a referendum to “right the wrongs”.

All this is a very effective “check and balance” on government at both levels. Furthermore, the mere fact that these avenues are open will mean that, most often, government agencies will “do the right thing” and referenda will rarely be needed.

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