"obtain a mandate" is correct and usable in written English.
You may use it when you are describing the process of obtaining authority to do something (e.g. implement a policy, initiate a project, etc.). Example sentence: The authorities must obtain a mandate from the citizens before they can start building a new bridge.
It contained a controversial provision that will require theologians to obtain a mandate from their local bishop certifying that what they are teaching is fully within church doctrine.
Only such a normalised situation, which allows for free political activity, can allow us to consult our people in order to obtain a mandate.
Between now and 2015, then, you must obtain a mandate from the voters and your party to be able to compete in such circumstances.But how to obtain it?
Negotiate; decide; and then obtain a mandate for entry in a referendum, if that is what you recommend.That is the letter of Mr Major's policy on the single currency, and indeed of Tony Blair's, and it is surely the right one.
Mr. Obama has no hope of obtaining a mandate for a military strike in the United Nations Security Council.
Abetz reaffirmed Tony Abbott's promise that any recommendations the government decided to support would not be implemented before the Coalition obtained a mandate at the next election.
"The elected representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk regions obtained a mandate to hold negotiations with central Ukrainian authorities to solve problems … via a political dialogue," Russia's deputy foreign minister, Georgy Karasin, said.
For the British-born, Eton-educated Mr Abhisit, who came to office by a parliamentary vote in 2008, it is an opportunity to finally obtain a popular mandate.
Sensing that the public was turning against his rule by decree, Bhutto ordered new elections in 1977 to obtain a popular mandate.
Awami League officials now admit that the fresh elections will have to be held to obtain a "genuine mandate" but say that "rushing into new polls would be a mistake" as the country needed to be "stabilised and secured".
The controversy led to the resignation of the Dutch government in 2002, after a report on Srebrenica held political leaders partly responsible for failing to obtain a stronger mandate for Dutch troops.
