Referendum in the Netherlands that took place last week regarding a potential Ukraine-EU treaty on closer political and economic ties has ended with an overwhelming 61 percent of voters rejecting the idea, according to official results published on Tuesday.
The official results released by the Dutch Electoral Council showed that 61 percent (2.509 million people) voted against Ukraine’s association with the EU. Some 38.21 percent (1.572 million) voted in favor while 0.79 percent (32,344) accounted for a blank vote.
Kiesraad heeft uitslag referendum Associatieverdrag met Oekraïne bekendgemaakt: https://t.co/R21teX5SK0
— Kiesraad (@Kiesraad) 12 апреля 2016 г.
The referendum has been deemed valid with a 32.28 percent turnaround, just above the 30 percent threshold needed to make the results legitimate. All in all a total of 4.1 million took part in the poll out of 12.8 million eligible Dutch voters.
While the referendum results are not legally binding, the result should force the government to reconsider the agreement after the nation rejected the Dutch parliament’s approval act of the EU-Ukraine deal.
“The result is considered an advisory verdict rejecting the approval Act. This means that the government should reconsider the law”, Electoral Council said publishing the results.