1962 Oranian constitutional referendum (African Israel)

A constitutional referendum was held on September 16, 1962 in the newly independent Oranian Republic in order to approve the constitutional text that was drafted over the last three months by the Provisional Executive Council of the Republic. Virtually copied off of the 1958 French constitution, the text was approved by a majority. This victory of the constitutional project was seen at the time as a marker of the future stability of the new country, as its text provided for equality before the law and the recognition of full equality for the indigenous Algerians.

The referendum is criticized because of the lack of any alternative to the constitution, as well as the lack of polling stations in Muslim-majority areas, which inflated the importance of the votes of the European Pieds-Noirs, who were largely favorable to the partition of Algeria and the maintaining of close ties with France. In addition, in the context of the ongoing Algerian Population Exchange, voter registration was often difficult and many new Oranians were not able to vote. The constitution would eventually be gradually ignored during the years of the Politique Nationale, a regime of quasi-segregation towards the Muslim minority.