Ireland's referendum wins large support to liberalize divorce laws

World
Europe

A referendum held earlier in Ireland to ease the restrictions on divorce in the country's Constitution has won the overwhelming support of the Irish voters, according to official statistics released on Sunday.

Just over 82 percent of voters endorsed removing a requirement that couples be separated for four of the previous five years before they can divorce.

The people who voted against the changes to the current divorce laws accounted for 17.9 percent.

Among 3.4 million registered voters in the country, nearly 1.73 million people, or 50.83 percent, turned out in the voting.

Culture Minister Josepha Madigan said that voters had shown compassion by “humanizing the system,” according to Irish local news outlet RTE News.

“I think it's an emphatic, unequivocal result, and even though we have a very low marital breakdown in Ireland, it just demonstrates the amount of people who stand in solidarity with them,” she added.

Ballot papers are handled as the count in the Irish abortion referendum at the RDS centre in Dublin, May 26, 2019. /VCG Photo

Divorce was banned in the largely Roman Catholic country until 1995. Ireland has seen rapid social change in recent years, followed by a series voting to liberalize the country's constitution.

In 2015 the country voted to legalize same-sex marriage, and last year voters opted by a two-to-one margin to end a constitutional ban on abortion.

Following the results of Friday's referendum, the Irish legislature, namely the lower house of the parliament, will work out a set of new laws regarding divorce.

Before the new laws are put into effect, all the divorce cases have to be dealt with the existing rules set in the country's constitution.

(Cover photo: Campaigners celebrate the official result of the Irish abortion referendum at Dublin Castle in Ireland, May 26, 2019.)

Source(s): AP ,Xinhua News Agency