2003 Colombian constitutional referendum

A fifteen-part constitutional referendum was held in Colombia on 25 October 2003. Whilst all fifteen proposals were approved by voters, only one question had a sufficient numbers of votes to pass the 25% quorum requirement.[1]

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Background

After taking office in August 2002, President Álvaro Uribe put forward several constitutional reforms. The Congress approved the proposals on 20 December 2002, but also suggested several changes, including reducing the size of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate by a fifth rather than creating a unicameral Congress, and forcing parties that received less than 2% of the vote in elections to disband.

Uribe subsequently signed the changes into law, and they were submitted to the Constitutional Court on 22 January 2003. On 9 July the Court passed judgement that the referendum was valid, but that four questions were not acceptable.

Under articles 374 and 378 of the Constitution, proposed amendments to the constitution require a quorum of 25% of registered voters casting a valid vote, and a majority of those who have voted to vote in favour.[1]

Results
# Subject For Against Invalid Quorum Blank votes Total Registered
voters		 Turnout
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
1Incapacity in public office5,874,19393.33294,3484.68125,2661.996,293,80725.11379,2436,673,05025,069,77326.62
2Restricted voting to the electoral roll5,871,35494.35232,1213.73119,2131.926,222,68824.82450,362
3Abolishing replacement members5,839,61293.27295,6164.72125,8502.016,261,07824.97411,972
4Congressional input to public broadcasters5,319,55786.52703,63411.44124,9152.036,148,10624.52524,944
5MPs working for parliamentary services5,668,81993.60283,0304.67104,4061.726,056,25524.16616,795
6Reduction in size of Congress and councils5,328,73393.00295,9085.16105,0401.835,729,68122.85943,369
7Removing public officials from office5,403,13994.71208,1003.6593,9821.655,705,22122.76967,829
8Pensions for public sector workers5,602,82390.06493,5637.93124,9262.016,221,31224.82451,738
9Abolition of regional and local audit offices5,557,95090.57460,9417.51117,9461.926,136,83724.48536,213
10No public money for election campaigns5,174,73894.73283,4404.64109,1041.796,107,28224.36565,768
11Money from abolished audit offices used on health and education5,668,87893.87270,0394.47100,3841.666,039,30124.09633,749
12Redistribution of education and health funds5,587,46990.16285,8424.62123,2281.996,187,53924.68485,511
13Freeze government spending for two years4,907,28380.281,063,87717.40141,5452.326,112,70524.38560,345
14Parties with less than 2% of the vote lose legal status5,457,86691.06420,8597.02115,3001.925,994,02523.91679,025
15Immediate implementation of the reforms5,457,95193.71270,2494.6297,1971.665,843,39723.31829,653
Source: Direct Democracy

Aftermath

Following the referendum, President Uribe objected to the presence of 700,000 voters on the electoral roll, whose removal would have meant nine of the fifteen questions passing the quorum. However, his protests were rejected by the National Electoral Council on 19 December 2003.[1]

References
  1. Colombia, 25 October 2003: Incapacity in public office, who takes on possession Direct Democracy (in German)
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