The State Election Commission (DIP) will release preliminary results on the outcome of the 22 January referendum on Croatia's EU entry two hours after the closing of polling stations, namely at 2100 hrs Sunday, 22 January. DIP will publish the preliminary referendum results on its web site and it will hold a press conference at midnight that day.
"We believe that already at midnight we will have returns that will enable us to say which position Croatians have taken on the referendum question," DIP vice president Zdravka Cufar Saric told the press on Tuesday, stressing that those would not be final results.
A referendum decision requires the support of a majority of those going to the polls, provided that a majority of the total number of eligible voters registered in voters' lists turn out for the referendum.
Eligible voters are citizens aged 18 and above living in Croatia and abroad.
The entire Croatia, as well as citizens abroad constitute a single constituency and are given the same ballot with the referendum question. There is no ban on the promotion of any position on the referendum day, except that such activities are banned at polling stations and in their vicinity.
The referendum will be organised on one day only, 22 January.
People with impaired sight will be provided with referendum ballot papers with Braille lettering.
Cufar Saric said that regulations on implementing a referendum are less strict than for local, parliamentary or presidential elections.
