Abstain means the panel member for whatever reason decline to vote, not a no vote. A member could abstain for many reasons not related to the meeting.
It is not needed. The vote was 7 in favor and 4 against (ie the panel recommended approval by a 63% margin).
If in voting abstaining meant no, then assuming you need a 50%+1 vote, I would guess every referendum placed to voters for the last 20+ years has failed because they did not recieve a yes from 50+% of the register voters.
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