Vote fail: Romania spent more than US$40 million on referendum to ban gay marriage, and few bothered to cast ballots

Romania’s government did everything in its power to make sure its referendum to enshrine a ban on same-sex marriage into the constitution would pass unchallenged.

It spent between US$40 million and U$50 million on preparations, extended the voting period from one to two days and even lowered the required participation threshold from 50 to 30 per cent, just to be sure.

But by Saturday evening, after the first of the two voting days, only about 5 per cent had cast their ballots.

After the Orthodox Church issued a final rallying cry, participation increased to at least 20 per cent Monday, but still failed to meet the minimum threshold – though the vast majority of people who did bother to vote, approved the measure to define marriage as heterosexual.

“Romanians rejected being divided and hating each other,” Vlad Viski, a representative for Romanian LGBT rights group MozaiQ, said.

Viski said that voters had grown weary of the involvement of the Orthodox Church that had massively campaigned in favour of the constitutional ban together with the ruling Social Democrats.

“We showed that we, as citizens, want a Romania based upon democratic values, a country where respect, equality and common sense guides society,” said Romanian LGBT rights group Accept in a statement.