| On 13-14 June 2003, the referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union was held. The referendum was declared by President of the Czech Republic's Decision No. 116/2003 Coll., of 25 April 2003. The question which the entitled citizens answered was worded as follows: "Do you agree for the Czech Republic to become a Member State of the European Union according to the Treaty of Accession to the European Union?" The referendum was held on the territory of the Czech Republic only. Its preparation and course was controlled by the State Election Committee set up pursuant to Act No. 130/2000 Coll., on Elections to Regional Councils, as last amended. The competence of the individual referendum bodies was established by Act No. 114/2003 Coll., on the Execution of the Referendum so that all organisational technical arrangements for the referendum, except for the tasks of the ward committees, and the processing of voting results were the responsibility of government and self-government authorities in the framework of the state administration they execute. The right to vote in the referendum was universal, equal and direct and the principle of secret ballot was observed. The right to vote was enjoyed by Czech nationals aged 18+ on the first or second day of the referendum, who were not hindered by any legal obstacle to vote. The entitled citizen was free to cast his/her vote in the polling station of the election ward, on the territory of which he/she permanently resided, or where he/she was recorded on the special list of entitled citizens. Entitled citizens permanently residing abroad could vote at any election ward on the territory of the Czech Republic, if they had asked for and were given voting cards. The ballot papers were handed in, checked and initially counted in permanent independent election wards (see Act No. 491/2001 Coll., on Local elections, as last amended). The referendum voting took place in 14 765 wards. The "one voter - one vote" principle was ensured by the voting procedure: the voter received an official envelope and a ballot paper from the ward election committee, marked his/her answer to the question on the ballot paper in a prescribed (valid) way, inserted the paper in the envelope, and put the envelope containing the ballot paper in the ballot box. The ward committee checked the votes cast and established, among other things, the total number of valid votes and numbers of valid YES-votes and valid NO-votes. The information on the total referendum voting results also includes the turnout (%) of entitled citizens. However, the declaration of the referendum result was not conditional on any percentage of participation (quorum). The total results of voting in the referendum were processed by the CZSO from the data handed over by the ward committees and are shown for regions and the Czech Republic in total in Tables 29-1 and 29-2. The CZSO passed data on the voting results for the whole CR to the State Election Committee for approval. Having approved the Data the Committee submitted the data to the President of the CR on 16 June 2003.
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Complete voting results broken down in detail by territory are available at www.volby.cz and in a special publication brought out on that occasion. |
