Unofficial results of the national referendum to amend Palau’s Constitution’s Article 1 Section 1 showed overwhelming support for the amendment from those that casted their votes on May 1, 2020. The unofficial results show 4,327 out of the total 4,478 votes supported the amendment with 143 opposing.
Total number of registered voters is 14,470 and only 4,478 voters casted their votes.
“It maybe because it was not a controversial issue, some people felt it was not necessary to come out to vote,” stated President Remengesau.
Different reasons were cited for low turnout including lack of controversy, limited time to inform people and good number of registered voters outside of Palau who were not able to cast their votes.
Minister Sinton Soalablai of the Ministry of Education said that people were well versed about the change based on the number of views and shared information online.
The 4,478 total votes cast represented 31% of the total registered voters but the requirement for the passage of the amendment is based on the majority of total votes cast and not the total registered voters. All of the States voted by vast majority to adapt the amendment satisfying the constitutional mandate requiring at least three-fourths of the States approval to pass the constitutional amendment.