Issues of sub-national referendums regulated at the national level

Constitution (7th revision, 2005)

Article 232 (Responsibilities of Legislative Assemblies of autonomous regions)

2. The Legislative Assembly of each autonomous region shall be responsible for submitting draft regional referenda by means of which the President of the Republic may call upon the citizens who are registered to vote in the region’s territory to pronounce in binding fashion on questions that are of important specific interest to the region. The provisions of Article 115 shall apply to such referenda, mutatis mutandis.

Article 255 (Creation by law) The administrative regions shall be created simultaneously by means of a law, which shall define their powers and the composition, responsibilities and proceedings of their bodies and may lay down differences between the rules applicable to each administrative region. Article 256 (De Facto Institution)

1. The de facto institution of the administrative regions by means of the individual laws instituting each one shall depend on the law provided for in the previous Article, and on the casting of an affirmative vote by the majority of the registered electors who cast their votes in a direct national ballot covering each of the regional areas.

The legislative assemblies of the autonomous regions can ask the President of the Republic to call a referendum on “questions that are of important specific interest to the region.”