Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1986

Polling for the referendum took place on Thursday 26 June 1986 between the hours of 9:00am and 10:00pm. The subject matter of the referendum was described as follows on the official polling card circulated to each elector:

The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1986, proposes to delete subsection 2° of Article 41.3 of the Constitution, which states that no law shall be enacted providing for the grant of a dissolution of marriage, and to substitute the subsection here following:

2° Where, and only where, such court established under this Constitution as may be prescribed by law is satisfied that:

1. a marriage has failed,
2. the failure has continued for a period of, or periods amounting to, at least five years,
3. there is no reasonable possibility of reconciliation between the parties to the marriage, and
4. any other condition prescribed by law has been compiled with,

the court may in accordance with law grant a dissolution of the marriage provided that the court is satisfied that adequate and proper provision having regard to the circumstances will be made for any dependent spouse and for any child of or any child who is dependent on either spouse.

(The statement was prescribed by the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 1986)

The total number of votes recorded in favour of the proposal was 538,279 and the total number of votes recorded against the proposal was 935,843. The proposal was not, therefore, approved by the people.