From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1918 Haitian constitutional referendum

Field	Value
date	12 June 1918
country	Haiti
flag_year	1859
yes	98294
no	769

A constitutional referendum was held in Haiti on 12 June 1918. Voters were asked to approve or reject a new constitution, which was imposed by the United States government. It was approved by 99% of voters, although less than 5% of the population voted.

Background

Haiti was occupied by the United States in 1915. Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed to have drafted a new constitution, which introduced direct election of the Senate, freedom of assembly and the press, and trial by jury. Controversially it initially included a right for non-citizens to own land, and for the American military to intervene in domestic politics.

The National Assembly elected in 1917 refused to adopt the draft constitution and drafted one itself, While the Assembly was debating its draft, Major Smedley Butler interrupted the session to announce that President Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave had dissolved the legislature, after he forced Dartiguenave to sign a decree to that effect. As there was no legislature in place to adopt the document, it was decided to hold a referendum.

Campaign

The American military government issued orders to arrest anyone publicly opposing adoption of the constitution.

Results

References

[[Dieter Nohlen]] (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p381 {{ISBN. 978-0-19-928357-6
George Athan Billias (2011) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ku0TCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA242 American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776–1989: A Global Perspective]'', pp242–244
Nohlen, p387
which excluded the right of non-citizens to own land.Michael Largey (2006) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BevX9ATCxZQC&pg=PA55 Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music and Cultural Nationalism]'', p55

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1918-in-haiti 1918-referendums constitutional-referendums-in-haiti june-1918-in-north-america united-states-occupation-of-haiti foreign-electoral-intervention election-and-referendum-articles-with-incomplete-results american-imperialism united-states-involvement-in-regime-change

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1918 Haitian constitutional referendum — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report