October 8 (SeeNews) - A two-day referendum held in Romania to ban same-sex marriage has failed due to low turnout, results published by the country central electoral bureau (BEC) showed on Monday.
The referendum, initiated by the NGO Coalition for Family and backed by the governing Social Democrat party and by the the Romanian Orthodox Church, failed to meet the required 30% voter turnout to validate the results, as just 20.4% of voters cast ballots, data showed.
However, according to the preliminary tally, some 91.6% of those who voted supported defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The voters were asked whether they want the constitution changed to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman. Romania's constitution defines marriage as an union between spouses and civil partnerships are not allowed between same-sex couples.
The referendum was surrounded by controversy, as it was seen as a test for the Social Democrats, who strongly and publicly backed the Coalition for Family.
On the other side, LGBT community supporters in Romania created the #boycott movement on social media, telling people not to go to the referendum, thus preventing them from meeting the validation threshold of 30%.