2023 Monsilvan constitutional referendum

2023 Monsilvan constitutional referendum

2 October 2023
Should the presidential term limit of 15 years (equivalent to three standard elections) be abolished?
Results
Results Votes % Yes 23,816,744 90.23% No 2,578,849 9.77% Valid votes 26,395,593 100.00% Invalid or blank votes 0 0.00% Total votes 26,395,593 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 42,232,948 62.5%
Results by Result by legislative constituencies
On the map, the darker shades for a colour indicate a larger margin. The electorate of 42.2m represents 84.4% of the population.

On 2 October 2023, a referendum took place in Monsilva to ask the electorate whether the 15 year presidential term limit (which is equivalent to three consecutive successful presidential elections) should be abolished, allowing presidents to serve for as long as they are elected. The ballot paper also made it clear that the abolition of the term limits would not affect the existing term limits on prime ministers. The referendum resulted in 90.23% of the votes cast being in favor of abolishing the term limits. Although the referendum was legally non-binding, the Legislative Assembly and Senate both voted in agreement with the result of the referendum and the Presidential Term Limits Act 1980 was formally abolished.

The topic of abolishing presidential term limits had grown in importance throughout Chiu Zan's third term as President of Monsilva. According to the term limits, she would have been unable to run for re-election in the 2023 presidential election, but due to her popularity, many people argued that a president should be able to run either for as long as the people elect them for, or until they do not wish to be re-elected. Chiu's popularity, particularly during 2023, was at record levels, having the highest positive ratings for any president since the first poll on Xu Zhou-da in 1979. In July 2023, a petition requesting the Legislative Assembly to call a referendum on whether presidential term limits should be abolished was created. By 1 September 2023, the petition had reached over 175,000 votes.

On 10 September 2023, the Legislative Assembly began discussions on whether or not to call the referendum. On the 25 September 2023, after an almost unanimous vote, the referendum was given the go ahead to be distributed on 2 October.