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.

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.

Results

#	Subject	For		Against		Invalid		Quorum		Blank votes	Total	Registered voters	Turnout
		Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
1	Incapacity in public office	5,874,193	93.33	294,348	4.68	125,266	1.99	6,293,807	25.11	379,243	6,673,050	25,069,773	26.62
2	Restricted voting to the electoral roll	5,871,354	94.35	232,121	3.73	119,213	1.92	6,222,688	24.82	450,362
3	Abolishing replacement members	5,839,612	93.27	295,616	4.72	125,850	2.01	6,261,078	24.97	411,972
4	Congressional input to public broadcasters	5,319,557	86.52	703,634	11.44	124,915	2.03	6,148,106	24.52	524,944
5	MPs working for parliamentary services	5,668,819	93.60	283,030	4.67	104,406	1.72	6,056,255	24.16	616,795
6	Reduction in size of Congress and councils	5,328,733	93.00	295,908	5.16	105,040	1.83	5,729,681	22.85	943,369
7	Removing public officials from office	5,403,139	94.71	208,100	3.65	93,982	1.65	5,705,221	22.76	967,829
8	Pensions for public sector workers	5,602,823	90.06	493,563	7.93	124,926	2.01	6,221,312	24.82	451,738
9	Abolition of regional and local audit offices	5,557,950	90.57	460,941	7.51	117,946	1.92	6,136,837	24.48	536,213
10	No public money for election campaigns	5,174,738	94.73	283,440	4.64	109,104	1.79	6,107,282	24.36	565,768
11	Money from abolished audit offices used on health and education	5,668,878	93.87	270,039	4.47	100,384	1.66	6,039,301	24.09	633,749
12	Redistribution of education and health funds	5,587,469	90.16	285,842	4.62	123,228	1.99	6,187,539	24.68	485,511
13	Freeze government spending for two years	4,907,283	80.28	1,063,877	17.40	141,545	2.32	6,112,705	24.38	560,345
14	Parties with less than 2% of the vote lose legal status	5,457,866	91.06	420,859	7.02	115,300	1.92	5,994,025	23.91	679,025
15	Immediate implementation of the reforms	5,457,951	93.71	270,249	4.62	97,197	1.66	5,843,397	23.31	829,653
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.