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Do you agree with the Law on the revision of the Romanian Constitution in the form adopted by the Parliament?[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outcome | Referendum failed due to low turnout | |||||||||||||||||||||
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A referendum took place in Romania on 6 and 7 October 2018 regarding the definition of the family in the Romanian Constitution. The referendum asked voters whether or not they approve a change to the family's definition as provided by Article 48 of the Constitution, to prohibit same-sex marriage.[2] At the same time, a name referendum was held in the Olt County for renaming it to "Olt-Romanați County".[3][4]
The referendum followed a citizens' initiative launched by Coaliția pentru Familie (the Coalition for Family) in late 2015 which gathered over three million signatures, substantially more than the 500,000 required to initiate the process for a constitutional amendment referendum. The Romanian Constitution defines the family as being founded on the free-willed marriage "between spouses" (which could also be translated as "between husbands" since in Romanian the same word is used to mean both husband and spouse of indefinite gender), but the initiative's promoters sought to amend this term with an explicit reference to marriage as a union between a man and a woman.[5] Had the measure passed, it would have made same-sex marriage unconstitutional in the country. Romanian statute law does not permit same-sex marriage.[6]
The referendum failed as the turnout was only 21.1%,[7] below the required voter turnout threshold of 30%.[8][9] The same thing happened in the Olt County referendum. There, the name referendum's turnout was of 27.19%.[10]
- ^ "Comunicat de presă - ședință de guvern - Guvernul a adoptat actele normative necesare bunei organizări a Referendumului pentru revizuirea Constituției". Guvernul României (in Romanian). 18 September 2018.
- ^ "Romania moves closer to ruling out possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage". Reuters. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ "Referendum special pentru 300.000 de români". Digi24 (in Romanian). 6 October 2018.
- ^ Dorobanțu, Alin (19 September 2018). ""DA", pentru Olt-Romanați!". Ziarul de Olt (in Romanian).
- ^ "ARTICLE 48 - Family". Constitution of Romania. Chamber of Deputies.
The family is founded on the freely consented marriage of the spouses
- ^ Adina Portaru. "Marriage at a crossroads in Romania" (PDF). Coalition for Family. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
Refer to pp. 30
- ^ Referendumul naţional pentru revizuirea Constituţiei din 6 și 7 octombrie 2018
- ^ "Prezența vot". Biroul Electoral Central. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ "Romanian constitutional ban on same sex marriage fails on low vote turnout". Reuters. 7 October 2018.
- ^ Dobrescu, Petre (7 October 2018). "Referendumul din Olt a eșuat, deși prezența a fost mai mare decât la referendumul pentru familie". Libertatea (in Romanian).