Five referendums will be held in Zongongia in September, following a five-party coalition deal after last year’s elections. There has already been a delay in the running of the five referendums, which were initially planned for April, due to logistical difficulties. Opposition parties have not criticised the delay – which their critics say is because they afraid of what the results will be, and any delay gave them more time to rally their opposition to change.
Five questions will be asked of the population of Zongongia in September of 2025. They will be as follows:
Should Zongongia abolish the monarchy and become a republic?
Should the state immediately nationalise all essential industries?
Should Zongongia enter into a political union with Kerlile?
Should Zongongia establish a carbon rationing system?
Should tertiary education become compulsory?
Of all these questions, only the first is expected to have any chance of passing, but with recent elections going as they have, nobody can quite guarantee anything at all. The Royal Family has not stepped in to prevent the first question being asked, even as the exact wording of the questions has been debated heavily. All five have been changed from their initial proposals, primarily to remove what some had seen as leading questions. The phrase “do you agree” has been legally banned in future referendums as a result of being deemed to be leading.
The second question has resulted in a fair amount of foreign lobbying, with anti-communist countries threatening sanctions and restrictions if it passes; Lauchenoiria (a major trading partner) among them. Lauchenoiria, with their poor history with communism, has recently elected their most right-wing government since the 1950s.
The third, put forward by Women Rising, is widely seen as a joke. Nobody expects it to pass.
The fourth, the contribution of Green Ecology, has been the subject of numerous explainers. With the actual questions being restricted in length, it has fallen to Green Ecology to explain to the public what the question actually means. In brief, their system would give every citizen and business a limited amount of carbon credits each month, and in order to engage in activities with high carbon output, these credits would have to be paid towards the activity. It is a controversial idea, to say the least.
Finally, the Tomorrow Party emulates Novella Islands in their proposal to make tertiary education compulsory. Critics of the party call them Novellan spies, which they deny – though they do admit to finding Novella Islands to be greatly inspirational. The fifth referendum is also considered unlikely to succeed, but has better odds than the others, excepting the monarchy question.
Some of the questions have cross-party support, with the Tomorrow Party supporting the Communists (which is not reciprocated). Almost the whole coalition is campaigning in favour of the monarchy abolition, with the exception of Green Ecology who have come down as neutral (though their support is about 85% in favour, according to polling). Nobody but Women Rising supports joining Kerlile.
