Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968

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The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968 was a proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland to alter the electoral system. The proposal was rejected.

Contents 1 Proposed changes to the text 2 Overview 3 Result 4 See also 5 Footnotes 6 External links

[edit] Proposed changes to the text

The subject matter of the referendum was described as follows:

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968, proposes –

(1) To substitute for the present system of voting at Dáil elections the "straight vote" system in single-member constituencies;

(2) To establish a Commission to determine constituencies, subject to the right of the Dáil to amend the constituencies as so determined; and

(3) To provide that whenever the Dáil is dissolved the outgoing Ceann Comhairle may be returned, without a contest, as a second deputy for a constituency chosen by him which consists of, or includes a part of, the constituency he represented before the dissolution.

[edit] Overview

It was a second attempt^[1] to alter the electoral system for elections to Dáil Éireann from proportional representation under the Single Transferable Vote to the British 'First Past the Post' system. The proposal was put to a referendum on 16 October 1968 but was rejected. It was introduced by the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch but was opposed by Fine Gael, the main opposition party, and by the Labour Party. The Fourth Amendment, 1968 was rejected by 657,898 (60.8%) against to 423,496 (39.2%) in favour.

The Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968 was submitted to a referendum on the same day and was also rejected.

[edit] Result

Electorate	Spoilt votes	Total poll (%)	For (%)	Against (%)
1,717,389	48,212	1,129,606 (65.8)	423,496 (39.2)	657,898 (60.8)

[edit] See also

• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• Constitutional amendment
• Irish constitutional referendum, 1968

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Referendum (Amendment) Act, 1968 (Full text at IrishStatuteBook.ie)
• Full text of the Constitution of Ireland (Accurate up to and including the Twenty-seventh Amendment from Department of the Taoiseach)
• The Unabridged Constitution of Ireland (Unofficial variorum edition - accurate only up to Twentieth Amendment)

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