Hungarians began to vote on Sunday in a referendum to decide whether to abolish fees for visiting the doctor and for hospital stays, as well as tuition fees in higher education.
A total of 10,951 polling stations across the country opened at6:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 7:00 p.m. (1800 GMT). There are some eight million registered voters for the referendum.
Voters will make a straightforward "yes" or "no" decision on each of the three issues, which are key measures in the Socialist-Liberal government's reform package designed to improve its budget balance. Payments for hospital registrations and stays started on Feb. 15 last year and college tuition fees will be adopted as of this fall.
According to law, if at least a quarter of, or two million registered voters cast a "yes" ballot on any of the three questions, the result will become valid, thus forcing parliament to amend relevant laws.
The national election office will release voter turnout data every two hours and the initial results are expected at around 9:00 p.m. (2000 GMT). The official results will be announced on March 14.
Citizens need to pay 300 Hungarian Forints (1.74 U.S. dollars) for registration and a similar amount for one-day hospital stay. Minors under 18 years old are free from paying any fees for any medical treatment.
Fidesz, the main opposition party, last autumn collected several hundreds of thousands of signatures to call for a referendum, which was approved by parliament on Dec. 17.
Pollster Szonda Ipsos predicted on Friday a roughly 40 percent turnout for the referendum.
The pollster found that 82 percent of voters are ready to scrap the co-payments on doctor's visits, while 12 percent said they would keep them. The vote is likely to go 83-11 to reverse per diem fees for hospital stays, and 81-12 to terminate college tuition fees.
Source:Xinhua
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