Nearly 21,000 residents in the town which is due to host the snow events if Munich are awarded the Games ahead of rivals Annecy and Pyeongchang are eligible to cast their ballot in two referendums, one by those against the event - NOlympia - and those in favour of the big event - OlympJa.

Both sides claimed that they were confident of winning.

"I expect us to get 52 per cent," Peter Doering, one of the initiators of the NOlympia Movement, told the German news agency DPA.

Doering said that 52 per cent would be a victory for his side but that a similar majority for Olympic supporters would feel like defeat because popular opinion is important for the IOC.

But Olympic supporters hope to get the nod by a big margin.

"You can justly say that the population of Garmisch-Partenkirchen is behind the Games if a clear majority of 60 to 70 per cent is reached," said Peter Fischer, who leader of the OlympJa movement.

Munich 2018 used the eve of the referendum once again to emphasise its pledge to deliver the first ever carbon-neutral Winter Games at a debate at BMW's headquarters.

The debate was led by Katarina Witt, the chair of the Munich 2018 Bid Committee, and also included Joschka Fischer, Germany's former Foreign Minister and Green Party member; Christian Ude, the Mayor of Munich; Christian Stickl, director of the Oberammergau Passion Play; and Katharina Schulze, deader of the Green Party in Munich.

The panellists took questions from a floor of over 300 influential guests, including representatives from both the OlympiJA and NOlympia groups and local Government, business and sport leaders.


"Our bid has been developed with a core focus on the athletes and their needs," said Witt (pictured above left).

"Existing sports centres in Bavaria will be modernised to boost community and professional sports facilities to the highest possible level.

"These investments go far beyond 2018 and will benefit German sport as a whole for years to come.

"Munich 2018 will leave a powerful sporting and social legacy for Bavaria and Germany, and become a blueprint for ensuring mega-events' long-term benefits to communities."

Ude stressed the huge development potential in an Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Munich.

"The special character and atmosphere of Munich as a cosmopolitan city has a lot to do with the Olympic Games of 1972," he said.

"Now we have the opportunity to write another unique chapter with the use of venues for both a Summer and a Winter Games.

"Should we win the right to host the 2018 Winter Games, the Olympic Park would be expanded with more greenery and benefit from ecologically upgraded facilities and two new modern multi-purpose halls.

"With the new Olympic Village and the Media Village, more than 1,300 state of the art, energy-plus housing units will be built, and this is something that has never been achieved before by a Games."

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