Word: referendums
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...last term, Ibarretxe expended a good deal - some critics would say all - of his political capital in an ill-fated attempt to hold a referendum on independence for the Basque country. That effort was quashed by the Spanish parliament, which judged it unconstitutional. But the Socialist victory does not necessarily mean that Basque society as a whole is becoming less nationalist. According to polls conducted by Euskobarometro, the percentage of Basques who desire independence has hovered around 30% - sometimes rising a few points, sometimes falling - since...
...broadcast with a major U.S. television network reaching millions, Parsi notes, it seemed to come out as the result of a direct question posed by Stephanopoulos rather than as part of a clearly prepared statement. In the interview, Ahmadinejad also emphasized his well-rehearsed proposal for a referendum that he clearly hopes would enable the world's 10 million Palestinians to put an end to Israel's existence through the ballot...
...Port of Spain, Trinidad? At first glance, his decade-old Bolivarian Revolution (named for South America's 19th century independence hero, Simón Bolívar) seems as potent as it was four years ago. Chávez, still Venezuela's most popular political figure, just won a referendum that will let him run for re-election as long as he wants. His small but radical leftist bloc of Latin American nations (including Bolivia and Nicaragua) has helped blunt U.S. hegemony and ushered non-hemispheric allies like Russia, China and Iran into America's backyard. His backers insist that...
...opposition insists Morales wants to create an authoritarian socialist state in Bolivia. At the same time, anti-indigenous racism is widespread in Bolivia's east. Right-wing opposition groups were responsible for violent attacks on indigenous citizens last year before January's constitutional referendum, which gave Bolivia's majority indigenous more political power but had many worried that Santa Cruz and other resource-rich eastern provinces might try to secede from the poorer highlands, where the capital, La Paz, is located. Morales himself went on a five-day hunger strike last week to get Bolivia's Congress to pass...
...controversial campaign and has been accused of scaremongering: many voters thought - wrongly - that the treaty would introduce conscription into a European army and weaken Ireland's laws against abortion. The confusion also raised questions about whether the Lisbon Treaty was too complicated and technical to be put to a referendum. But Ganley, who will run himself in Ireland's northwest constituency, rejects such claims. "Democracy is not supposed to be perfect," he says. "It's a blunt instrument. It's not expected to be efficient...