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The Coalition Government has put forward a Bill to amend the 2013 Constitution which removes reference to a referendum to make any changes to the supreme law of the land.

Tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, the legislation cited as the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2025, seeks to amend Section 159(2) of the Constitution, subsection (2)(b) by deleting “;or”, and substituting “.”; and deleting paragraph (c).

It also seeks to amend Section 160 of the Constitution in subsection (2)(b) by deleting “three quarters” and substituting “two-thirds”; and deleting subsections (3) to (6).

In the explanatory notes, the Attorney General says the 2013 Constitution was promulgated in and came into force on, 7 September 2013.

He says Section 159 of the Constitution provides for the amendment of the Constitution, which can only be done by virtue of the procedure described under Chapter 11 of the Constitution.

The AG says Section 160 of the Constitution prescribes the procedure for an amendment of the Constitution which inter alia requires the support of at least three-quarters of the members of Parliament at the second and third reading of a Bill to amend.

It further prescribes that should a Bill to amend the Constitution succeed at Parliament, a referendum must then be conducted. If the outcome of the referendum is that three-quarters of the total number of registered voters have voted in favour of the Bill to amend the Constitution, the President must then assent the Bill to enable such amendment.

The AG says the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2025 therefore seeks to amend the Constitution to allow for a feasible approach to amending the Constitution currently stated under section 160 of the Constitution. He says this would allow provisions to be updated and more so, a refinement of provisions that require public scrutiny and vote.

The Bill, which also seeks the removal of the requirement for a referendum in the Constitution which is consistent with historical practice and precedent, will be debated on another day.

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