There are different forms of direct democracy but three options for Malaysia include referendums, recall elections and participatory budgeting. This article is published by the Himalayan Insight. Here is an excerpt:
In 2014 in the highly divided and hyper partisan country of Venezuela, a recall referendum was conducted on whether to sack or keep the charismatic leader, Hugo Chavez. In Venezuela, all offices that are elected by popular vote are subject to revocation through a recall mechanism. Venezuela is unique in applying this mechanism widely and even then president Chavez was not spared. The opposition in Venezuela collected signatures in 2003 and the process of validation of signatures was marked with controversy.
The election management body of Venezuela certified that the opposition had collected sufficient signatures to trigger a recall vote. The question posed to the voters is whether the voters agreed to revoke the presidency term of Chavez or not. With a turnout of 70%, 58% of the voters voted to keep Chavez and 42% voted to sack Chavez. Chavez survived the recall attempt.
In Asia, we have seen a similar example of recall elections carried out in Kaohsiung, Taiwan where the voters voted to sack the mayor last year. Both instances are good examples of direct democracy in action within the context of a representative democracy. In this article, we at Tindak Malaysia would like to explain what direct democracy options could be considered for Malaysia.
Find the full article here. Also see related Democracy Chronicles articles like those on Voting Methods, Direct Democracy, and definitely checkout our main Voting Methods section.
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