Sofia Voters Said 'No' to New N-Plant

While the majority of Bulgarians who took part in Sunday's referendum voted in favor of the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the country, the majority of Sofianites begged to differ, according to a poll.

A total of 50.2% of all Sofia-based voters voted against the potential construction of a second nuclear power plant in the country, Gallup International says.

Gallup International's poll has also established that 57.7% of Bulgarian voters living in big cities voted in favor of a new nuclear power plant. The support was larger in villages – 67.7%.

Pollsters have also noted that the turnout was unusually low among Bulgaria's Roma population.

Sunday's referendum was invalidated by low turnout, as merely 21% of the eligible voters cast their votes . A total of 4 345 450 people were supposed to cast a vote for the decision of the voters to be binding. As the turnout is over 20%, and more than half of the votes are positive, then the question is tabled for debate to parliament.

The referendum resulted from a petition organized by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) after in March 2012 the center-right government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the GERB party terminated the project for the construction of a second Bulgarian nuclear power plant – located in the Danue town of Belene – by Russian state company Atomstroyexport, subsidiary of Rosatom, with a capacity of 2000 MW.