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Turnout was crucial today, as this was the first referendum after implementation of the requirement that at least 20% of all registered voters, meaning at least 343,000 voters, need to cast no votes and be in the majority in order to repeal a law.

But unofficial results, released after more than 99% of the votes were counted, showed that 132,513 or 67.33% voted against, while 64,308 or 32.67% voted in favour.

The changes to the archives act, passed in parliament in January but not yet in force because of the Democrats (SDS) referendum initiative, are said by the government to make access to files easier. But opponents claimed that the archives are in effect being closed down after the SDS-led government opened them up in 2006.

MP Eva Irgl, who led the SDS's referendum initiative, said in her first reaction that one of the reasons for the low turnout was lack of awareness among Slovenians about the importance of voting, which showed that Slovenia was still not a mature democracy.

She also blamed what she said were extremely irresponsible calls by the media for a boycott of the referendum and the refusal of the coalition to hold the referendum together with the 25 May EU election, which "would have made it cheaper while quorum would have also been achieved".

What is more, Irgl argued that people still feel fear when it comes to issues related to the secret police and that this also played a key role in terms of people not voting.

Irgl added it "is necessary to be fair and admit that we did not achieve quorum, but the minister will also need to be fair and admit that the changes did not receive support".

Culture Minister Uroš Grilc on the other hand said that citizens had decided to have the archives open and also voted by not going to the polls. "By not voting people say whether this issue is key for them or not."

He said he was happy that citizens lent an ear to the government's arguments and that "Slovenia's archives are the most open archives in Europe as of this day".

The result comes after a dispute which focused on the expansion of restrictions governing access to sensitive personal data (sexual orientation, religion or health problems) of victims of organisations such as the Communist-era secret police and other state organisations to that of members of these organisations.

While the government argued that this is required by human rights standards and that additional segments of the archives are being declassified, the SDS and several researchers claimed the censoring of this data will take so much time as to prevent any serious research. The opponents were also arguing that this amounted to "equating victims with perpetrators".

Researcher Igor Omerza commented on the result today by saying that the "godfathers working in the background" had won, finally completing efforts to close down the archives which he says began in 2010.

He fears that contrary to assurances received, he will soon lose his permit for unlimited access to the archives.

The head of the National Archives Bojan Cvelfar on the other hand said that things will definitely be easier now, as attention will finally move from the referendum to "serious issues, above all the securing of appropriate premises and to digitalisation".

He stressed that the changes that will enter into force now bring important changes exactly in the field mentioned.