Botswana: Referendum results 1997
Updated April 2007
The referendum was held on 4 October 1997.
According to the IEC (Undated), "In 1997 the nation was asked in a referendum to say whether or not they agreed with the proposed constitutional changes which included reducing the voting age from 21 to 18 years; and the creation of the Independent Electoral Commission". The third issue at stake was permitting Batswanas living abroad to vote (Molomo 2004,62).
Question One: Results
The results for the first of three questions, that dealing with the institution of an Independent Electoral Commission, are given in the table below (from Nohlen et al 1999, 111).
Voting statistics
| Registered voters | 370 173 |
| Votes cast | 61 873 |
| Valid votes | 61 672 |
| Invalid votes | 201 |
| % turnout | 16.7 |
| % invalid | 0.3 |
Results
| Votes | % votes | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 45 122 | 73.2 |
| No | 16 550 | 26.8 |
| Total | 61 672 | 100.0 |
Source
IEC UNDATED "Referenda", [www] http://www.iec.gov.bw/referendum.html, (off-line 4 Mar 2010).
MOLOMO, MG 2004 "The Need for Electoral Reform in Botswana" IN African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 4(2), 55-77, [www] http://www.accord.org.za/downloads/ajcr/ajcr_2004_2.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 4 Mar 2010).
NOHLEN, D, KRENNERICH, M & THIBAUT (eds) 1999 Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook, Oxford Publishers.