 Though the coup of January 22 , 1798 did not bode well for a genuinely democratic approval process for the new constitution ( and the French would have preferred going the " safe " way of approval by the rump assembly ) the plebiscite that started on March 17 ( in the usual form of elections in " primary " assemblies of about 100 @-@ 500 voters ) had a reasonably democratic quality . On April 23 , 1798 , the Staatsregeling voor het Bataafsche Volk was approved with 153 @,@ 913 votes against 11 @,@ 587 ( i.e. just 641 more people voted for approval in 1798 than had voted for rejection of the previous draft in 1797 ; about 50 % of the electorate had voted . ) The new regime therefore seemed well @-@ grounded in the new doctrine of popular sovereignty . 
