Complex sentence: In 2004, there was a referendum to decide whether Hull would remain in Gatineau, but the population in majority did not vote, while most voters were against the deamalgamation thus the status quo prevailed.
Split into simpler sentences: In 2004, there was a referendum to decide whether Hull would remain in Gatineau. But the majority of the population did not vote, while most voters were against the deamalgamation thus the status quo prevailed.