Although a poll on Friday indicated high support for a Romania constitution change to specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, only 20.4% of eligible voters cast ballots – short of the 30% needed to pass the measure resulting in a massive FAIL to the countries anti-LGBT extremist organizations.

The low turnout comes despite the support of the powerful Orthodox church, and the unusual step by the government of extending the vote to two days instead of one.

Mihai Gheorghiu, president of the pro-referendum Coalition for Family, ahead of the vote said they were trying “to protect, at a constitutional level, the definition of marriage – between one woman and one man.

The constitution will retain its current, neutral wording – that a family “is founded on the freely consented marriage of the spouses”.

Dan Barna, of the opposition Save Romania Union, the only major political party to oppose the referendum, has called for the government’s immediate resignation for “wasting €40m ($46m; £35m) of public money on a fantasy”

The president of LGBT rights organisation Mozaiq, Vlad Viski, called for the legalization of civil partnerships in the wake of the failed vote.

“They must answer the people’s wishes,” he said.

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