Romanian same-sex-marriage referendum fails amid low turnout

The two-day voting in Romania to declare same-sex marriage as unconstitutional collapsed as it failed to meet the minimum 30 per cent voter turnout.

Romanian election officials say a referendum asking to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage has failed due to low voter turnout.

The country's election commission said that just 20.4 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots by the time polls closed on October 7, the second day of voting. That was well below the 30 percent threshold required by law.

The proposed amendment would change the constitutional definition of marriage from a union of "spouses," to one exclusively of a man and a woman to prevent any attempt to legalize same-sex marriage through legislation in the future.

A conservative group initiated the two-day referendum, and the influential Romanian Orthodox Church and all but one parliamentary party backed the change.

"We call on you to vote, to have this honor, to demonstrate this freedom and right," Patriarch Daniel was quoted as saying in a statement on the news website of the Romanian church.

The measure had passed the country's two chambers of parliament already, making the referendum vote the final stage in the amendment process.

It was not immediately clear whether conservative organizations would make another try at a referendum or give up.

Conservative Romania is one of the few members of the European Union to ban marriage or civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Romania decriminalized homosexuality in 2001, but discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) minority is widespread.