Few turn out for Romania marriage vote

BUCHAREST, Romania — A referendum aimed at putting same-sex marriage further out of reach in Romania was invalidated Sunday after a quick tally showed too few voters cast ballots, election officials said.

The weekend vote on a constitutional amendment that would have changed the definition of family to make marriage a union between a man and a woman instead of between “spouses” required voter turnout of at least 30 percent for the result to stand.

Election officials said after polls closed that only 20.41 of eligible voters participated.

Marriage statutes already prohibit same-sex marriage in Romania. The conservative Coalition for Family spearheaded the referendum with a signature petition, arguing that any ambiguity in the constitution needed to be eliminated.

The influential Romanian Orthodox Church backed the amendment. Concerned about the low turnout, Patriarch Daniel urged Romanians earlier Sunday to “vote before it’s too late.”

Opponents argued that the new constitutional language could make LGBT people feel more like second-class citizens and make other non-traditional families targets of discrimination.

Priests leading services at St. Mary’s Church encouraged the congregation to vote. Retired farmer Ana Buturgianu, 69, said she’d heed the advice, as did Andrei Aurelian, a 53-year-old cashier.

“The vote is for us and for our children. It’s normal to have a man and a woman, not two men together,” Aurelian said.

But Bucharest resident Marin Soare, 50, who was cycling through the village Sunday, boycotted the referendum, calling it “a waste of money.”

“We already have traditional families in Romania and have done so for 2,000 years,” he said. “And there’s always been same-sex relationships.”

PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti — A magnitude 5.2 aftershock struck Haiti on Sunday, even as survivors of the previous day’s temblor were sifting through the rubble of their cinderblock homes.

The death toll stood at 12, with fears it could rise.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the aftershock was located 9.8 miles north-northwest of Port-de-paix, the city hard hit by Saturday night’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake. Sunday’s aftershock had a depth of 6.2 miles.

“It was an aftershock. It was at the same location,” said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the USGS. “This is the first significant aftershock.”

The tremors caused panic on streets where emergency teams were providing relief to victims of Saturday’s quake, which toppled cinderblock homes and rickety buildings in several cities.

Haiti’s civil protection agency said at least seven people died in the coastal city of Port-de-paix and three people died in the nearby community of Gros-morne in Artibonite province. Among the dead from Saturday night’s quake were a 5-year-old boy crushed by his collapsing house and a man killed in a falling auditorium.

A total of at least 12 people were killed in the quake, Interior Minister Fednel Monchery told radio station MAGK9. Authorities said 188 people were injured.

“I feel like my life is not safe here,” said nun Maryse Alsaint, director of the San Gabriel National School in Gros-morne, where several classrooms were severely damaged.

She said that about 500 students would not be able to return to school on Monday.

The USGS said Saturday’s quake was centered 12 miles northwest of Port-de-paix, which is about 136 miles from the capital of Port-auPrince.

It was felt lightly in the capital, as well as in the neighboring Dominican Republic and in eastern Cuba, where no damage was reported.