A minimum turnout required for the referendum to be considered valid is 50%, which means that a half of the town's 37,952 eligible voters, (that is 18,976) should go to the polls in order to have a binding outcome of the referendum.

According to returns from 31 out of a total 59 polling stations, a turnout by 1600 hrs was 20%.

Town councillors on April 6 adopted the referendum question: "Do you support the adoption of the urban plan which, among other things, approves the construction of a golf course and accommodation facilities (villas, hotels and apartments) on the plateau of Srdj Hill?"

Construction of a golf park on the hill above Dubrovnik has caused controversy over the past few years and a civil action group has objected to the project and initiated the collection of signatures for the referendum. Anti-golf activists managed to collect 9,085 signatures within the necessary time frame of 15 days in February and the Public Administration Ministry approved the petition for the referendum, After that, the local authorities decided that the popular vote on the matter would be held on 28 April.

In the meantime, two civil society associations -- the Green Action and "Srdj is Ours" initiative -- and the Croatian Architects' Association (UHA) also filed a lawsuit against the Environment Protection Ministry with the Split Administrative Court over the ministry's assessment that the golf resort project on Srdj Hill is acceptable in terms of environment protection. The petitioners believe that they will prove before the court that "excessive development on Srdj Plateau, planned in the project" is contrary to the law. The anti-golf activists fear that building a gold course and other facilities, including holiday homes on Srdj would be an attack on the most valuable space in Croatia and "inadmissible trading" with the health of Dubrovnik residents.

This prompted Environment Minister Mihael Zmajlovic to state that he had no doubts that the lawsuit would end in his ministry's favour.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection issued an Environmental Impact Decision (EID) for the Srdj sports and recreation centre along with recommended measures to protect the environment and mitigate the impact on targeted ecological networks and a programme to monitor the environment and ecological networks.

At a meeting on 6 March 2013, the Commission assessing the environmental impact of the Srdj development plan, unanimously adopted a positive opinion on the EID along with prescribed protection and monitoring measures. Pursuant to the Commission's recommendations, the ministry on 3 April 2013 issued an EID for the Srdj golf course, the ministry said in its explanation of that decision.

According to the EID, the investor, the Razvoj Golf company, has the obligation to implement environment protection and mitigation measures and to submit the results of monitoring to the Environment Protection Agency.

In response to such developments. representatives of the "Razvoj Golf" company said that stringent conditions and measures to be taken to protect environment in the future project were "no surprise for the investor".

The company's representative Ivan Kusalic told the media on that occasion that the company would accept and incorporate all the measures in the design documentation. Describing those measures as demanding, he added that they had been also known to the investor before.