Direct democracy

Opponents of plans to privatize EYATH, the state-run company that provides the northern port city of Thessaloniki with water and sewage services, hope to reverse the process by putting it to a referendum on Sunday.

According to preliminary counts, between 94 and 98 percent of voters in Ukraine's Luhansk region have voted for self-rule in Sunday's referendum.

The referendum in Ukraine's southeastern Luhansk region on declaring independence from Kiev has allegedly attracted voter turnout of over 75% in some places.

Pro-Russian separatists in two eastern regions in Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, are holding "self-rule" referendums.

The "People's Republic" of Donetsk was proclaimed on April 7 and the "People's Republic" of Luhansk was proclaimed on April 27 by heavily armed pro-Russian activists.

There will be no referendum on election rules in Bulgaria alongside the May 25 European Parliament elections.

BELGRADE - Russian Ambassador in Serbia Alexander Chepurin said that the voting in Crimea was very well organized and stressed that everything was done in accordance with the international law.

Voting has began in a referendum on whether Venice and its surrounding region should secede from the rest of Italy, Sunday.

Recent opinion polls suggest that two-thirds of the four million electorate favour splitting from Rome in an attempt to restore its 1,000-year history as a sovereign republic. However, the vote will not be legally binding, the BBC News reports.

Turnout in Crimea's referendum reached 64 % by 3pm local time, according to referendum commission chief Mikhail Malyshev.

Malyshev, as cited by CNN, informed that no provocations at polling stations have been reported so far.

Residents of Crimea vote Sunday in a referendum on whether to split from Ukraine and join Russia.

More than 300,000 signatures have been collected in favour of a referendum on Bulgaria's election rules and procedures.

Estimates from Tuesday morning claim the number has even reached 350,000, according to Bulgarian news agency Mediapool, which cites sources from the referendum's initiative committee.