The outcome of Friday's referendum will also see Irish lawmakers granted powers to recognise foreign divorces once it is signed into law by the president (AFP Photo/PAUL FAITH) |
Dublin (AFP) - Ireland voted by an overwhelming majority to relax its constitutional restriction on divorce, results showed Sunday, the latest in a series of reforms to modernise the charter of the once devoutly Catholic nation.
Some 82
percent of voters cast their ballots in favour of removing a provision
requiring couples to live separately for four out of the previous five years
before dissolving their marriage.
The Irish
government has signalled it will bring forward new legislation shortening the
requirement to two out of the prior three years.
At present
Irish divorce law is regarded as among the most restrictive in Europe.
It is
thought to be responsible for the republic having the lowest separation rate of
any EU member state, according to 2015 figures from the country's Central
Statistics Office.
The outcome
of Friday's referendum will also see Irish lawmakers granted powers to
recognise foreign divorces once it is signed into law by the president.
The
mandated separation period was a hangover condition from the 1995 referendum
which granted Irish couples the right to divorce by a slim majority of 50.3
percent.
Campaigners
said it placed an unfair emotional and financial burden on couples and families
at a time when Irish rental and property prices are spiking.
The result
of the vote comes one year on from the day when 66 percent of voters cast
referendum ballots in favour of repealing the republic's constitutional ban on
abortion.
While the
result of that vote was hailed by crowds in jubilant scenes in Dublin Castle,
Sunday's result was announced without fanfare.
In October
of last year voters also chose to lift a rarely enforced -- and oft ridiculed
-- constitutional ban on blasphemy.
A further
referendum to excise or alter the constitutional article referring to the
"woman's life within the home" is expected to be brought forward
soon.
The turnout
in the referendum, which took place alongside EU elections, was 51 percent.
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