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Family Referendum fails: 20.41 pct of voters cast their ballots
Those 18,662 polling stations in the country have closed their gates at 21.00h on Sunday in the second day of the referendum redefining family. According to the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), the turnout was 20.41%, which has not attained the threshold of 30% needed for the referendum to be validated. 1.75 million votes were still necessary for the quorum to be attained.
The total number of persons that presented themselves to the polls until 21:00 was of 3,731,704, of which 1,829,816 in the urban environment and 1,901,888 in the rural environment
Suceava is the only county in Romania that went beyond the validation threshold of the referendum for the redefinition of the family, with a 30.67pct turnout, considering that the overall national level was 20.41pct.
In this northeastern county, as many as 184,459 persons have cast their ballots, according to the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), most of the voters being from the rural environment, namely 111,831, at the Burdujeni rail station, in Suceava City.
The city of Suceava saw a 24.84pct turnout.
According to Ludovic Orban, chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL - opposition), the main reason why people did not show up to vote is because the referendum was hijacked by the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea.
"The main reason why people did not come today to vote was because the referendum was hijacked by Liviu Dragnea (...) Many Romanians, who were favorable to the theme of this referendum, did not show up to vote as a slap to the face of Dragnea and in order to avoid of doing any favors to Liviu Dragnea. This is the main reason why the turnout was so low", Orban said, in a press conference.
The Save Romania Union (USR - opposition) leader, MP Dan Barna on Sunday night demanded the resignation of the Government, saying that by organizing the referendum to amend the Constitution, it "threw 40 million out on a fantasy."
Barna declared, after the closing of the polls, that a responsible political class should not organize such referendums that fragment the society. According to him, Romania has still got enough problems to solve, especially in infrastructure, in the health system or in education to spend money on something else.