A referendum on the future of nuclear energy in Bulgaria failed Sunday when too few voters turned out to say whether they wanted new power plants constructed.
Exit polls said just more than 20 per cent of some 7 million registered voters cast their ballots. However, at least 60.2 per cent were required to show up in order to validate the referendum.
The majority of those who did cast ballots said they wanted Bulgaria to develop nuclear energy by building another power plant, according to polling agencies after the voting ended.
The referendum's failure does not mean that Bulgaria will have to halt nuclear expansion - in fact, both political camps support it, but are fighting over where to build new facilities.
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's conservative GERB party and the opposition Socialists each described the referendum's outcome as a blow to the other side.
"This is the most expensive opinion poll in Bulgarian history," Borisov said. His Socialist rival, Sergey Stanishev, said the referendum result was "a huge personal defeat for Borisov."
The two leaders and their parties will face off this year in regular parliamentary elections.
The country already has an existing plant with two 1,000 megawatt generators at Kozloduy, on the Danube river.
Borisov's government supports the expansion of Kozloduy, to replace the old reactors, built in the 1970s and shut down in the previous decade over security concerns.
Socialists initiated the referendum to revive the project of a new power plant at Belene, some 100 kilometres downstream from Kozloduy.
Bulgaria began working on Belene in the 1980s, before the Communist regime was toppled, but froze the work in the 1990s on environment concerns.
The project was restarted in the next decade, only to be placed on ice once again by Borisov's cabinet, which scrapped the plan involving Russian contractors as outrageously overpriced.
Observers say the future of Bulgaria's nuclear programme will, in the end, depend on the political leadership in place after the elections - and money.