2011 Liberian constitutional referendum

Both houses of the Legislature of Liberia passed a series of four amendments to the current Constitution of Liberia on 17 August 2010.[1] Per Article 91(a) of the Constitution, the amendments must be ratified by two-thirds of registered voters in a referendum held not sooner than one year after the passage of the amendments in the Legislature. Though all four amendments will be voted on in the same referendum, Article 91(b) requires that each amendment be individually approved by the voters.

Initially, NEC Chairman James M. Fromayan announced that the referendum would not be held before the scheduled presidential and legislative elections on 11 October 2011, stating that the estimated cost of holding both elections in close proximity would be prohibitive.[1] However, he reversed his position in September 2010, citing the fact that of the estimated US$69 million needed to conduct the 2011 elections, 65% of those funds would be used to hold runoff elections for legislative seats.[1] He noted that as funding for the runoff elections had not been secured and that one of the proposed amendments would eliminate those elections, it was prudent to hold the referendum before the 2011 elections.[2] With assurances for funding the referendum received from the government and foreign donors, the NEC scheduled the referendum to be held on 23 August 2011.[1][2]

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced her support for all four of the amendments, but said that her administration viewed the amendment regarding the switch to simple majority in legislative elections as the only crucial proposal due to its financial implications.[7] The opposition Liberty Party also announced its support for the amendments but argued for more comprehensive constitutional reform.[8] National Patriotic Party leader Jewel Taylor stated that she would vote against all four amendments, believing that the residency clause amendment discriminated against recent returnees and the extension of judge tenure would delay replacement of the country's judges with more qualified appointees.[9] Congress for Democratic Change presidential candidate Winston Tubman called for a boycott of the referendum, calling into question its constitutionality, the impartiality of NEC Chairman Fromayan, and the feasibility of holding the referendum so near to the 2011 elections.[10][11] Tubman later backed away from calling for an outright boycott, while still expressing opposition to the amendments.[12]

President Sirleaf declared the day of the referendum a public holiday.[13] The referendum was overseen by 1,949 registered domestic and international observers, including officials from the National Democratic Institute, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the African Union Civil Society Group and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).[14] Voting was held at 4,457 stations across the country and proceeded peacefully, with only a single isolated incident of violence reported in Barclayville.[14] However, the vote was marked by low turnout and confusion regarding the reasons for the referendum.[15] Several women's advocacy groups criticized the government for a lack of awareness among women regarding the referendum.[16]

Several voters called into local radio stations on the day of the referendum to report that their ballots had a significant error on them, with one question asking whether the voter wanted to increase judges' retirement age from "75 to 75 years" rather than the correct "70 to 75 years." NEC officials acknowledged and apologized for the error, noting that the ballots had been printed in Denmark and thus the error had been discovered after the printing had been completed. The NEC also stated that polling stations with the incorrect ballots had posted clarifications.[17] NEC Chairman Fromayan later told reporters that the error would have no impact on the results of the referendum.[18]

The official results were scheduled to be released on 7 September 2011.[14] However, the NEC finished counting one week ahead of schedule and released the results on 31 August 2011.[19] The NEC declared that none of the four amendments gathered the required two-thirds majority necessary for ratification.[20]

However, following the referendum, Unity Party Chairman Varney Sherman and Senator Fredrick Cherue of River Gee County filed a petition to the Supreme Court seeking a writ of prohibition to overturn the NEC's certification of the defeat of Proposition 4 regarding the method of elections. The plaintiffs argued that the NEC had improperly counted invalid votes as "no" votes in their computations of the results. Had invalid votes been excluded from the computations, the percentage of "yes" votes for Proposition 4 would have been 67.65% of the valid votes, more than the two-thirds necessary for ratification. On 20 September, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sherman and Cherue and declared that Proposition 4 had been ratified.[21]