REFERENDUM TURNOUT FELL SHORT OF ABOUT 13,000 VOTES TO MAKE THE RESULTS MANDATORY

The voter turnout in the referendum fell short of 13,155 votes to make the results of the referendum compulsory, data of the Central Election Commission shows on 8th of October with 100% of the ballots processed. The ballots are subject to second processing before the CEC announces the official results. The deadline for the official results is within 5 days after the end of the vote.

The voter turnout at the referendum was 50.59%. 3,487,428 Bulgarians voted in it. The turnout failed short of about 13,000 votes to make the result mandatory. The outcome of the referendum becomes mandatory only if the turnout in it exceeded the threshold of 3,500,585 voters, which matches the turnout in the previous general elections.

The three questions of the national referendum received an overwhelming support by Bulgarian voters both in the country and those voting abroad.

On the question about the introduction of a majoritarian vote to elect MPs, 71.94% of the respondents (2,509,340 people) said that they voted in favour and 16.06% (560,261 people) opposed.

On the question about the introduction of a mandatory vote, 61.89% (2,159,981) of the respondents voted in favour and 25.96% (905,689) opposed.

On the third question about reducing the state subsidy for parliamentary-represented parties – to one BGN for each valid vote received in the parliament election, 72.16% (2,516,893) of the respondents were in favour and 15.02% (523,755) opposed.