The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) has released Monday morning, the first partial results of the referendum on redefining the family. The results of 98.3% of the ballots show that 91.61% have voted in favour of amending the Constitution and 6.42% against.
The turnout was of 20.96%, BEC has informed, based on the outcome at 9.00h Monday morning.
The overall turnout was of 3,778,716 citizens. The votes ‘yes’ amounted to 3,461,581, the votes ‘no’ to 242,671 and the void ballots to 74,414.
The 18,662 polling stations in the country have closed their gates at 21.00h on Sunday on the second day of the referendum redefining family. According to theBEC, 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.
18.87 pct of voters had cast their votes until 7 p.m. on Sunday within the referendum redefining family, according to data centralized by the Central Electoral Bureau.
3,450,189 Romanians have turned out to the polls until 19:00, with 1,705,558 of them in the urban environment, and 1,744,631 in the rural settings. 111,457 people voted abroad, with the highest turnout being registered in a polling station in London, 5,466 voters.
Several photos have been posted online featuring Romanians from abroad queuing to cast their vote, most of them in the polling stations in Dublin, Ireland, but also in Harrow, UK or Nuremberg, Germany.
According to the BEC, 14.64 percent of Bucharesters cast their ballots until 19:00.
The highest turnout was registered in Suceava (30,6%) where the threshold has also been met. Highest turnout was also reported in Dâmboviţa (28,9%), Bihor (28,9%), Olt (27,1%), Bistriţa Năsăud (26,9%), Botoşani (26,8%), Neamţ (26,6%). In Suceava,the county with the highest turnout, 62% people have voted in one polling station, while other 27 sections have registered a turnout of over 50%.
President Iohannis voted in Sibiu
President Klaus Iohannis has cast his vote in Sibiu on Sunday evening.
After doubts on if and where he is going to vote, the head of state came to the Middle School no 4 in Sibiu to cast his vote around 19.30h.
Klaus Iohannis asked the members of the polling station if there were many people who expressed their vote and they replied there had been 230 voters in the section by then. The President made no statements to the press.
The head of state came without his wife, Carmen Iohannis. It was for the first time Carmen Iohannis hasn’t accompanied his husband to the polls.
What did the political leaders say?
“Romania will be the same on Monday as it was on Friday. A Romania of the 21st century, with all its citizens,” USR chairman Dan Barna said. Barna and his party have been the only ones who openly said they would boycott the referendum. “Dancila-Dragnea Government must step aside, it threw EUR 40 million on a ghost“, Barna added.
PNL chairman Ludovic Orban, who voted, explained the party had done the right thing at the referendum, as the party members had the freedom to decide how they will position themselves.
Orban also opined why Romanians had not come to the polls. “They refused the referendum to be seized by Liviu Dragnea. Many of them haven’t showed up for fear of doing Liviu Dragnea a favor.“
The former president Traian Basescu, honorary leader of PMP, who also went to the polls on Saturday, considered that “the failure of the referendum has proved the BOR (Romanian Orthodox Church)-PSD tandem cannot control the popular ballot“.
Former technocrat PM Dacian Ciolos also reacted to the outcome: “Romania has given a democracy lesson to the current political class in these two days. We have the duty to thank all, both to those who cast their vote, but also to those who chose not to vote, and we must get over of useless tension in the society as soon as possible“.
Victor Ponta, also ex-prime minister, slammed both Dragnea, Basescu and Orban for the referendum. Now leader of Pro Romania party, Ponta stated that PSD, PNL and PMP “will politically answer for the selfish, totally outdated leaders’ stupidity and villainy. ‘”I am sure that the overwhelming majority of the Romanians love their families and believe in its values- but they don’t want to give their vote for the political advantage of some hypocrite, cynical and manipulative guys- they will not receive lessons about family from Dragnea and Basescu!”, he argued.
From the ruling Social Democrat Party’s camp, the top leaders had not come out with public statements after the polls closed. PSD deputy secretary general, Codrin Stefanescu stated that the outcome of the referendum is a failure of the Romanians, and of Romania in general, yet underlining that the voters went to polls “in numbers”. “4 million Romanians who voted is a giant number“, Stefanescu said.