The local referendum in Bourgas, calling the city's residents to vote on the construction of the Bourgas-Alexandropoulis oil pipeline, surprisingly did not collect enough votes to be declared valid. Polls before the day of the referendum, conducted by Alpha Research, showed 60 per cent of Bourgas' population planned to vote on the issue.

However, the final tally showed that only 27.09 per cent, or 51 225 people, from the country’s second biggest Black Sea port went to the polling precincts, with the cold weather blamed for the low turnout, Focus news agency reported on February 18. The voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea of the pipeline, with 96.8 per cent, or 49 552 people, voting against it.

But because the turnout failed to reach 51 per cent of eligible voters, it would not be recognised as valid. Bourgas municipality has 188 774 eligible voters.

Downtown voting precincts saw the highest turnout, with villages and districts populated by Roma showing the lowest figures. In Pobeda district, residents said they were paid to turn out at the local elections and without the financial incentive, they had no motive to do so this time around, Dnevnik daily reported.

Voting was not marred by any wide-spread violation of electoral procedures, as only two tip-offs were received during the day. Ivailo Drazhev, Roden Krai party leader and the local branch of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) both said cable television channel Skat was lobbying against the pipeline on the day of the referendum, which is forbidden by law.

Talking to public television channel BNT after polling stations closed, Bourgas mayor Dimitur Nikolov said that despite a disappointing low turnout, that was the first local referendum for an energy infrastructure project in the city, the first of its kind not only in Bourgas and Bulgaria, but the entire Balkan region.

Following the series of protests against the oil pipeline, organised by Bourgas residents and the local Initiative Committee for Salvation of Bourgas Gulf, two other nearby Black Sea towns have announced, voted and approved a proposal for referendum in their municipalities. One of them, Primorsko, is among the fastest growing Black Sea towns, and the other, Sozopol, is one of only two Black Sea old architecture towns. Sozopol would hold its referendum on April 6 2008. Bulgaria's other old architecture town on the Black Sea, Nessebar, which is located north of Bourgas, was considering a referendum as well.

The referendum in Bourgas was observed by a delegation of Greek environmentalists and journalists. Environmental organisations in Alexandroupolis were planning to start an information campaign in March, as the main problem the Greeks are currently facing is similarly to Bulgaria, the lack of information of the project.

Local fishermen and the population of nearby islands were the greatest opposition of the oil pipeline project, worried about its potential impact on tourism in the area.According to Greek environmentalists, there was a pressure in Greece to keep criticism of the project out of the local media.