January 2021 Midterm Referendum
The January 2021 Midterm Referendum (also known as the Ranked Choice Referendum) was held from January 11 to January 25 2021/XLII and included a single question on preferred options for Talossa's Head of State.
Background
Legislation
The Ziu passed 5512, "The Ranked Choice Referendum Bill", in November 2020; the bill specified a Ranked Choice (Instant Runoff) choice between four constitutional options:
- the King of Talossa shall be replaced by an elected Head of State.
- the king of Talossa shall share power with a periodically elected Co-prince.
- the King of Talossa shall continue to have the political powers granted by the current Organic Law.
- the King of Talossa shall have no political powers except in cases of emergency or constitutional crisis.
The order in which the options were to appear on the ballot was chosen at random by the Chancery.
The bill also provided that, if an option preferring an Organic Law Amendment were to win the vote, the Government would submit a bill enacting that change before the end of the 55th Cosă.
Results and aftermath
72 ballots were cast, out of 152 eligible voters, for a turnout of 47.4%.
| Ranked Choice Referendum | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Count | Redist. | Second Count | Redist. | Final Count | ||
| Option One | 30 | +3 | 33 | +1 | 34 | |
| Option Two | 10 | +1 | 11 | -11 | - | |
| Option Three | 23 | +4 | 27 | +5 | 32 | |
| Option Four | 9 | -9 | - | - | - | |
| Exhausted ballots | +2 | 2 | +5 | 7 | ||
Option One, for an elected Head of State, thus won a very narrow victory over Option Three, for the status quo.
After discussions between the Government and the Opposition, the Government submitted a bill to the 6th Clark of the 55th Cosă amending the Organic Law to require the King of Talossa to be subject to re-election every 7 years.[1]