A referendum on the electoral system was held in Slovenia on 8 December 1996.^[1] Voters were given three options to approve or not; a compensatory system, a two-round majority system and a proportional representation system at a national level.^[2]

Due to the low turnout of 37.9%, none of the proposals crossed the legal threshold and the results were invalidated.^[3] Later, in 1998, the results were revisited by the Constitutional Court, who found that the two round majority system had in fact been approved. However, the system ended up not being adopted after negotiations between parliamentary parties resulted in the approval of a proportional representation system with a 4% electoral threshold, which was added as an amendment to Article 80 of the Constitution, bypassing the court ruling.