1648 Constitutional Amendment Referendum

[Basileusa Cleo]

The 1648 Constitutional Amendment Referendum was conducted following the Basileusa's proposed Bill to amend the Constitutional Settlement Act. Her amendment sought to give power to the Basileus (King) not only in exceptional circumstances, but on a normal basis as well. Critics of the proposal accused the Basileusa and the Metaxas government for pushing through the passage of the Bill at the very end of the seventh Synklētos, which according to them had "lost credibility, authority and legitimacy". The Bill nevertheless passed and was immediately assented by Petros III's wife.

Although the Bill came into force as an Act of the Synklētos, the referendum itself which was required for the constitutional changes to be enacted was delayed. The "No" campaign, weakened and reportedly even chased at some occasions, blamed that to the "Metaxas Tyranny" which had corrupted the elections and in effect created a one-party dictatorial regime after the election. Having some certainty of the result, the Mesazōn and the Basileusa agreed to hold the referendum within the first months of the new government, even before the disputed Synklētos was assembled and the Speech from the Throne delivered.

Are you in favour of amending the following parts of the Constitutional Settlement Act of 1463 to read:

Amendment One: Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitutional Settlement Act shall be amended to read: "Section 8) The King may issue provisional and other laws, provided that they shall not be at variance with the Constitutional Act and the Acts of the Constancian Parliament, and that they shall always be subject to rejection, amendment and repeal by the Constancian Parliament."

Amendment One Results

Yes: 84.24%
No: 11.94%
Invalid/spoiled: 3.85%

[Basileusa Cleo]

The referendum was as clear as any referendum could possibly be. Yet the sense of mistrust and suspicion was as high as the vote in favour of the power grab by the Basileus, where a contributing factor had the "electoral coordination" policy known to the Constancians since the last election. As soon as the initial polls were announced, at 11pm on the evening of the referendum day, protestors gathered in the major cities of the Kingdom, with about 200,000 in Vey. Civil Power officials immediately intervened in an attempt to prevent escalation. More than 7,000 were arrested, many of whom injured by the policemen themselves. The situation was reported by the media, although at the request of the government details were committed "to stop the spread of dangerous ideas".

But the most violent scenes were seen in Nivardom, where the Nivardomski Otechestvenofrontovska labeled this "the day Vey lost Nivardom". Hours after the announcement, the mayoral office was surrounded by activists in an overthrow attempt. The attempt failed and "an accident involving the death of two people" was reported to the rest of the Kingdom. The Home Guard was immediately deployed to appease the far-right NO activists, most of whom however had already left the place hours before the Guardmen's arrival. Amit the government's refusal to disclose information about the situation, rumour has it that they are prosecuted by the Home Guard.