Word: referendum
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...People's Deputies, a legislature populated with Soviet holdovers. Their simmering feud had finally boiled over. He blasted the body for "blocking reform," for orchestrating a "creeping coup." He accused Deputies of defiling the Kremlin meeting hall with "the sick ambitions of failed politicians." Then he called for a referendum to end the political stalemate. "I am asking the citizens of Russia to make it clear," he said, addressing the electorate. "Which side...
...confronted with a stark choice of submitting or facing the President at the ballot box, the balky Deputies under leader Ruslan Khasbulatov became more inclined to deal. So, on reflection, did Yeltsin. By week's end he had agreed to submit three candidates for Prime Minister and modified his referendum. Although a popular vote would still be Yeltsin's to lose, Russians will not be asked to choose directly between him and the Congress. Instead, they will determine who should have more power by voting on a new constitution on April...
...Yeltsin team has been toying with other options to break the deadlock between the rival branches of power. One would be to turn directly to the people, as Gorbachev did in March 1991 when he held a national referendum on a new Soviet Union. Radical democratic groups have long been prodding Yeltsin to put the parliament-or-Pres ident question to a similar vote. Another referendum topic that some economists believe to be absolutely crucial to the success of Yeltsin's reforms is whether land ought to be bought and sold: without private property laws, capitalism cannot flourish. The President...
...whether to permit abortion as where to permit it. The country's blanket ban, last reaffirmed by voters in 1983, came under new scrutiny in March, when the Supreme Court allowed a 14-year-old rape victim to have her pregnancy medically terminated in Britain. In a three-part referendum, voters overwhelmingly decided to legalize that previously unlawful option by permitting women to travel abroad for abortions and obtain information about how to do so. But a constitutional amendment allowing abortions to be performed in Ireland in cases where a mother's life is threatened was roundly defeated because both...
...REFORM Panama's constitution and officially abolish the military, President Guillermo Endara assumed his countrymen would agree that a final break with ousted dictator General Manuel Antonio Noriega's discredited regime was in order. To his surprise, Endara found that Panamanians wanted a break from him. In a referendum, the first national vote since U.S. troops deposed Noriega and installed Endara three years ago, 63.5% of Panamanian voters said no to the package of 58 complicated items in a simple yes or no vote. The vote was tantamount to a rejection of Endara's rule, which has left the country...