site.btaMost Voters Answered "Yes" to All Three Referendum Questions

Most Voters Answered "Yes" to All Three Referendum Questions

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - An overwhelming majority of voters gave "yes" answers to all three questions in Sunday's national referendum, but it is not yet clear whether the turnout was high enough to accept the proposals.

According to exit polls taken by Gallup, as many as 79 per cent supported electing Parliament by an absolute majority in a two-round majoritarian system, 16.4 per cent opposed the idea, and 3.7 per cent did not answer. Market Links set the positive answers to this question at 82.66 per cent, bTV reported.

"Yes" answers to the question about introducing compulsory voting in elections and referendums came from 70.6 per cent, "no" answers were given by 26.5 per cent, and 2.2 per cent declined to answer. According to Market Links, 68.19 per cent favour compulsory voting.

Eighty per cent voted in favour of setting the annual state subsidy granted for financing political parties and coalitions at 1 lev per valid vote received at the last parliamentary elections, 16.3 per cent were against, and 2.6 per cent ignored the question. Market Links' exit polls found that 80.45 per cent of the voters want this subsidy cut.

A Gallup parallel count found that 45.6 per cent of eligible votes cast ballots in the referendum. At 100 per cent count of the sample, the figure rose to 47.4 per cent. This turnout is lower than the 48.7 per cent who voted in the last presidential elections, which means that at this stage the referendum results cannot compel Parliament to adopt or amend legislation accordingly, representatives of the agency said on Nova Television.

A Market Links parallel count, based on a 79 per cent sample, set the turnout at 48.67 per cent of eligible voters, bTV reported.

Alpha Research reported a 50.3 per cent turnout on the basis of a 90 per cent count of its sample.