THE Oxford English Dictionary defines a referendum as a process of referring an important political question (a proposed constitutional change) to be decided by a general vote of the entire electorate. An electorate is all the people in a country or area who are entitled to vote in an election.

A referendum is therefore a general vote by all the people in a country entitled to vote on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.

If a country holds a referendum on a particular political question, it is asking the people to vote either “yes” or “no” on the question. A referendum is a vote on the question. 

For the electorate, a referendum is very similar to an election. On polling day, electors go to a polling place and cast their vote on a ballot paper. Electors can also vote early in person or by post, if they can’t go to a polling place on polling day.

Referendums are common in some countries, and not so common in others. Switzerland, for example, has been said to have conducted more than 600 national referendums. By contrast, in Canada, there have only been three.

Brexit, the decision to leave the European Union by the United Kingdom, is a recent example of a referendum at a national level. Before that, there were no nationwide referendums in the UK until 1975 when a referendum on the UK’s membership of the then European Economic Community was held on June 5, 1975.

The other national referendum in the UK was in 2011 on the political question whether to change the voting system used in UK parliamentary elections. The electorate was asked to vote on the proposal to switch Westminster elections from first past the post to the alternative vote.

At the time of the 1975 referendum there was no regulatory framework for referendums. The Referendum Act 1975 made provisions for the referendum.

The 2011 referendum was enabled by the European Union Act 2011. The Act however does not provide for the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. The latter was enabled by the European Union Referendum Act 2015.

In other words, referendums must be provided for by law.

In Malaysia, the Federal Constitution provides for elections to the federal legislature and state legislature but does not provide for referendums. There is also no legislation on referendums.

The six state polls on Saturday are elections to the state legislature. The elections will determine the six state governments. They are not referendums on the federal government. – August 10, 2023.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.