This is a little more complete than what was in the AP translation I was working with in my entries on this topic up to now.
After 1/3 of a province’s council members or 1/10 of its electorate have petitioned to be included in a region, the process is:
a) a general referendum is to be held by the residents of the designated provinces referred to in “First” of this article [i.e. those that would form a given region--Ed]. The referendum takes place when the provincial councils are in session, and requires a simple majority.
b) the referendum is not be repeated, unless 2/3 (two thirds) of each of the provincial council members, or 1/4 (a quarter) of the province’s residents, request that.”
I am unsure if this “general referendum” means a majority in the entire propose region, or concurrent referenda in each province. One would hope it is the latter, but it is not clear. Even if it is province-by-province, the minority within a province that might be opposed to accession to a region has a high hurdle to cross.
I can’t link to the above, because I got it off Lexis-Nexis, but here is the citation:
The Associated Press
August 24, 2005, Wednesday, BC cycle
SECTION: International News
HEADLINE: Key issues in dispute during deliberations over Iraq’s constitution
