joining the EU, as the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs set up an EU information event in Zagreb, while a protest against EU accession at the main city square drew 200 (some arrests occurred). The Croatian Bishops' Conference called on citizens to vote in the referendum, reminding Croatians that Croatia is a part of European culture while refraining from directly advocating either position. The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts also supported joining the EU with 93 academicians in favour, 2 against and 1 abstention; they said that the event represents a great opportunity for Croatia. In contrast to EU accession opponents' request to postpone the referendum until Generals Gotovina and Markač were released by the ICTY, Gotovina himself urged citizens of Croatia to vote in the referendum and said that he would vote in favour of joining the EU. Opinion polls Opinion polling regarding Croatian EU membership was regularly carried out by the CRO Demoskop, Ipsos Puls and Mediana Fides agencies. Since 2008, these polls overall indicated support for Croatian EU membership; in May 2011 and after, support ranged between 55% and 63%. The highest support since 2008 was 64% in the first half of November 2010. The lowest level of EU membership support (between 23% and 38%) was reported on 15–16 April 2011 in the wake of the ICTY's guilty verdict for Generals Gotovina and Markač. In early January 2012, an NGO advocating voting against the referendum called the "Council for Croatia – NO TO EU" () reported that they had contracted a Canadian company (one unknown to the Croatian public) called the "Business Knowledge Corporation" to conduct their own poll on the issue; they stated that with 1,942 polled, 57.2% were against the referendum while 41% declined to answer the poll question. The NGO said that the apparent gross disparity between these results and the results of all other recent polls was due to government manipulation. Results The EU accession referendum passed with 66.27% of votes cast in support and 33.13% against EU membership for Croatia. There were 0.6% blank or invalid votes. Even though all Croatian citizens were voting in a single constituency for the referendum's purposes, the State Election Committee published the results by individual counties, cities, and municipalities. The referendum passed in all Croatian counties. The greatest support for the referendum was recorded in Međimurje and Brod-Posavina counties at 75.73% and 72.61% respectively.