[robhu]

Yes, referendums aren't held in a vacuum, the wealthy, powerful, and the government can use their resources to influence the result.

This happened in the UK with Brexit. The government opposed it, the bank of England, all the major institutions opposed it, the government spent millions on propaganda leaflets, and so on. It was unthinkable that the Brexiteers could win, and yet against all odds they did.

In this situation of course the scales are tipped similarly - while the regional government may want to spend on influencing the election, the financial firepower of the national government (who oppose independence) totally outstrips them, so if the referendum would be unfair it would be because it would disproportionately be tipped against independence.

It's not a perfect system - but a referendum is the best system available for answering these questions.