Referendum for Constitutional Amendment of Russia

77.95 percent of Russian citizens have voted in support of the Amendments

• Russians have granted President Vladimir Putin the right to stay in power until
  2036 by voting overwhelmingly for constitutional changes
• This will reset the clock on the longtime Russian leader’s tenure to zero, but critics
  said the outcome was falsified on an industrial scale
• The Central Election Commission said 77.9 percent of votes counted across the
  world’s largest country had supported changing the constitution

Key highlights of the Referendum

• Constitutional Referendum as proposed by the President of Russia Vladimir
  Putin during his address to the Federal Assembly on 15th January 2020 was
  held from 25th June to 1st July 2020
• As per the votes during the Referendum, 77.95 percent of Russian citizens have
  voted in support of the Amendments to the 1993 Constitution of Russia
• Russians have overwhelmingly voted in favor of changes to the country’s
  constitution that enable President Vladimir Putin to potentially stay in power
  up to 2036
• The constitutional amendments covered a raft of issues ranging from the
  minimum wage and pensions, to giving Putin the right to run for two more sixyear terms in office
• The vote on constitutional amendments was billed as a referendum, but in
  reality the changes had already been passed by Russia’s parliament and the
  public vote was seen as a move to legitimize the amendments
• Official results published on Thursday, after 99.9 percent of ballots had been
  counted, showed that the former KGB officer who has ruled Russia for more
  than 20 years as president or prime minister had won the right to run for two
  more six-year terms after the current one ends in 2024
• Russian opposition figure and prominent Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny
  dismissed the official results of the vote on constitutional amendments as “fake”
  and “a huge lie

Amendment features and Putin’s power extension

•  Vladimir Putin’s current term as the President of Russia ends in 2024
• In the State Duma (Russian Parliament), Putin submitted the list of 14 draft
  amendments that will be changed under the 1993 Constitution of Russia
• For introducing these amendments, he called for a nationwide referendum or a
  national vote
• Apart from these, in 2020, 5 new Articles were added and 41 existing Articles
  have been already been rewritten in the Russian Constitution
• As per one of the amendments, the term of the current (Vladimir Putin) and
  former (Dmitry Medvedev from 2008-2012) President of Russia will be reset
• It might be counted from 0 from 2024 so that either of them can be elected as
  the President again in 2024
• Vladimir Putin’s second consecutive term (from 2012-2018, 2018-2024) would
  have ended in 2024
• Now with a clear majority of the Russian’s having opted for the Constitutional
  Amendments, Putin can remain as the President of Russia until 2036

What is Referendum?

• It is a direct and universal vote in which an entire electorate is invited to vote
  on a particular proposal and can have nationwide or local forms
• This may result in the adoption of a new policy or specific la
• In some countries, it is synonymous with a plebiscite or a vote on a ballot
  question
• Some definitions of ‘plebiscite’ suggest it is a type of vote to change the
  constitution or government of a country
• The word, ‘referendum’ is often a catchall, used for both legislative referrals and
  initiatives
• Australia defines ‘referendum’ as a vote to change the constitution and
  ‘plebiscite’ as a vote which does not affect the constitution, whereas in Ireland,
  ‘plebiscite’ referred to the vote to adopt its constitution, but a subsequent vote
  to amend the constitution is called a ‘referendum’, as is a poll of the electorate
  on a non-constitutional bill

Pic courtesy : dw.com