The 2007 referendum was validated by the Constitutional Court although the voter turnout was below 50%. In fact, 44.45% of the Romanians cast their vote back then. This time, following the revision of the referendum law, over 50% of the eligible voters will have to go to the polls, for the referendum to be valid. That is, as many as 9,154.307 people have to vote in order for the 2012 referendum to be validated by the Constitutional Court.

The number is quite high for Romania, where the turnout is generally low. Liberal Democratic Party leaders, supporters of the impeached president, have called for a referendum boycott. The opposition party has urged their sympathizers not to validate what they call a coup d'etat staged with apparently democratic means.

On the other hand, the ruling Social-Liberal Union, which started the impeachment procedure of president Basescu saying the latter broke the Constitution, says that the Liberal Democrats' calling on voters not to go to the polls is undemocratic. The Social-Liberal Union did its best to make sure all Romanians who want to cast their vote, can do it, by setting up over 1000 polling stations more than in 2007 and by extending polling stations' opening time by 4 hours.

The around 3 million Romanians living abroad can vote in one of the 306 polling stations set up outside Romania's territory. Interim President Crin Antonescu has stated once more that he will withdraw from the political life if Traian Basescu is reconfirmed as president , following low voter turnout in the referendum. To the western chancelleries, the referendum on July 29th is a democratic test for Romania, after long years of political dispute.