The paper said some 261,000 people registered to vote by mail at the beginning of August, which increased to just 264,000 in three weeks.

Voters living beyond the border have until September 17 to register to vote in the referendum. A total of 114,000 voters have registered in Romania, 29,000 in Serbia and 2,100 in Germany, the paper said.

Magyar Nemzet pointed out that these numbers are relatively low considering that over 800,000 ethnic Hungarians have been granted Hungarian citizenship, 700,000 of whom are of voting age.

The paper noted that the referendum will only be valid if over 50% of voters, or 4.1 million people, cast valid ballots.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.