Marriage equality voted down in referendum

Ljubljana, 20 December - Slovenian voters rejected marriage equality in a referendum Sunday, as opponents held a 26-point lead and met the statutory quorum with most of the votes counted.

Ljubljana
Aleš Primc and Marjetka Zevnik, the co-leaders of the group that spearheaded the campaign against gay marriage.
Photo: Anže Malovrh/STA

Ljubljana
Four centre-left parliamentary parties that joined the yes camp in the marriage equality referendum watch as results trickle in showing a decisive victory for the opponents of gay marriage.
Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA

Ljubljana
Voting in referendum on legislative changes enacting marriage equality.
Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA

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After over 90% of the vote was counted, the result was 63% against and 37% in favour of amendments to the marriage and family relations act that would have instituted full marriage equality for homosexual couples.

Under referendum rules 20% of the electorate or almost 343,000 voters needed to vote against in order to reject the legislation, a quorum that has been exceeded by well over 10,000 votes.

The turnout was almost 36%, a figure that could rise slightly as the results keep coming in, which is almost six percentage points more than in a similar vote in 2012.

Dec 20, 2015, 20:51 sm/gj/gj