8.66 %. That’s the official turnout on today’s referendum on regions according to the State Electoral Commission at the time of publishing this post. The polling stations had closed minutes ago, and it means that a little more than 145.000 people out of 1,6 million eligible had voted. Analyses and projections will be forthcoming in the next couple of hours and day. PM Janša is due to give a statement at 2100hrs, while Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković (the one who called for a boycott) will give a statement minutes from now.
As predicted, a battle for interpretation will start. PM Janša is scheduled to give a statement at 2100 by which time all the votes will probably have been counted. The extremely low turnout (lowest of any referendums held in Slovenia, where referendums are not attended in huge numbers anyhow) suggest that those who voted, did so in favour of regions.
Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković will give a statement minutes from now. As you may recall, he called for a boycott of the referendum. It will be interesting to see if he will be tempted to interpret turnout in Ljubljana (only 5.5%) as a massive following of his advice. The reality namely is that we had a criminally nice and warm Sunday probably payed a part in the fact that less than 6% of voters cast their vote in Ljubljana (the lowest turnout in the country). But the main factor dirivng the voters abstinence is probably the fact that the voters didn’t care a pair of fetid dingo’s kindeys about a muddled referendum question and a severe lack of a referendum campaign. To elucidate with a refference to specifics: While casting his vote, pengovsky was actually asked by a member of the on-site electoral commission what this referendum was actually about. Go figure.
Stay tuned, more info after 2200 hrs.
One factor that I think matters alot is that you have quite alot of refferendums in Slovenia. I like it, but it tends to lower the number of voters.
The remaining 90% is still reading the questions’ wording…
I drove across Slovenia to be home on referendum Sunday, and it turns out I forgot to go vote. I’m not too fazed about it, neither – there is no way in hell my “no” would be interpreted as it would have been meant: “Quit jerking around with the ridiculously tiny regions and put a proposal of somewhere between 3 and 6 regions on the table.”
I checked the latest official results (http://www.dvk.gov.si/RefPokrajine2008I/index4.html , Slovene only, I’m afraid), and the turnout is almost 11%, and most regions got confirmed, with the exception of the Central Slovenia region (62% against) and the Coastal and Prekmurje regions (both in the vicinity of 52% against).
While the Central Slovenia region my be a bit of a hard nut to crack – too many voters there to plain out disregard – I expect the government to keep schtum about the poor turnout and start trumpeting the overall success of the referendi.
The oposition will, of course, start screaming bloody murder about the criminally poor price-turnout correlation.
In my opinion, the voters refused to answer simple question as they knew very well that the answer will be misinterpreted in a number of ways.
For example the question that I had to answer was do I agree that towns Maribor, Miklavz, Ruse, …, and Bistrica form a county. I do not since I do not believe that such a small county would be able to function well. However voting against might well be interpreted that I do not like some of my neighbors in this county – that it is still too large. So I just made a big cross over the question, and my vote will not count.
Since less than 10% voters showed up, it is clear that a better posed question with Slovenia divided in less regions would attract more interest and wider acceptance.
When I cast my vote around 2 PM only 23 people showed there before me in my polling station. 🙁 I was shocked. I think it’s a pity that turnout was so low. It’s worth fighting against referendum while we can still change something. After it, not voting when referendum is already inevitable, is a waste of taxpayers money.
@gandalf: Usually, the turnout is about 30 percent. Until yesterday, I was convinced that the turnout would be the same even if people were asked to decide the height of grass on the new Ljubljana footbal pitch. Turns out I was wrong 🙂
@Disablez: Especially in Central Slovenia, where the question was as long as my… arm 😈
@Igor D: Very much to the point. Although one could claim that – given the experience with municipalities – voters would support even more regions. The turnout would remain problematic, however.
@Sunshine: True that.
I was shocked that at around 1 am that I showed up at my polling station, 28 (twenty eight!) per cent of voters from our district had already placed their votes. I thought that was a phenomenal result and it turns out it really was far above average.
Since I’m changing my permanent residence I guess I won’t be as proud of my co-voters in the future 🙁
I posted a comment yesterday, but it seems it got lost in the e-eternal hunting grounds… 🙁
Anyway, what I had to say was this: I drove across Slovenia to be home on referendum Sunday, and then I simply forgot to go vote… But I’m not too fazed about it, either (I’m a rabid voter, otherwise) – there’s no way in hell my “no” would be interpreted as it would have been meant: “Quit jerking around with the ridiculously tiny regions and put a serious proposal with 3 to 6 regions on the table.”
As Igor D. pointed out, it could actually be intepreted as: “I’m unhappy with the (Savinjska-Šaleška) region proposed and would rather see two regions instead.”
@dr. fil: Heh, heh 😀 I guess that particular area voted in favour of the regions?
@Cornelius: My appologies. Spam filter was apparently feeling a bit trigger-happy. To tell you the truth, I almost forgot to vote too
But fact of the matter is that November last, when Danilo Türk was elected as the new Prez, PM Janša talked about resignation is only to reinforce his position. Today, he doesn’t have to. All he needed to claim victory was a relative majority and he got it.
Forgive me for saying so, but what we saw yesterday (politically speaking) wasn’t a boycott. It was a forefit.