A referendum on Croatia's admission to the European Union was implemented in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere without major irregularities, according to a statement issued by the nongovernmental organisations GONG which referred to the situation by 1800 hours Sunday and which GONG published based on the reports submitted by its observers at polling stations.
Voting in the referendum was monitored by some 300 GONG observers at 253 polling stations organised in 42 mobile teams across Croatia who reported only a small number of irregularities by 1800 hours.
GONG said that at some polling stations members of polling committees had not checked the identification documents of observers, while at some polling stations voting was allowed without a valid identification document. GONG observers also reported that voting at several locations was organised in inadequate facilities.
By 1800 hours GONG received a small number of phone calls from citizens who reported that there were no ballots for blind people. They also reported that promotional flyers and posters were put up in the immediate vicinity of or at the polling station.
According to GONG, 36.2 percent polling committees failed to visit sick and infirm people and enable them to vote.
GONG said it would announce the results of the vote following the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) which involves observation of the voting and counting of ballots at the polling stations, collection of official polling station results and independent tabulation of these results, parallel to election authorities.
