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Low eu turnout seen in EU megapoll { June 12 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=528180§ion=newshttp://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=528180§ion=news
Low E.Europe turnout seen in EU mega-poll
Sat 12 June, 2004 20:13
By Robin Pomeroy
ROME (Reuters) - Low turnout figures for European elections in the Czech Republic and Latvia suggest apathy is a problem in the European Union's new as well as old members as three more states voted in the 25-nation poll.
By Saturday, seven countries had voted or begun voting in the election staggered over four days, with the rest due to cast ballots on Sunday in the elections for the European Parliament. In some states, ruling parties looked set for a drubbing.
In the Czech Republic, where two days of voting ended on Saturday, only about one in four voters turned out, a polling agency said, an early sign of sparse interest in the formerly communist east European states that joined the EU last month.
In Latvia, the first ex-Soviet republic to vote in an EU election, less than a third of the electorate had voted by 4 p.m. local time, although officials said they hoped for 60 percent by close of polls six hours later.
But in Latvia, more than 70 percent of people normally vote. "I think it's because the EU parliament is not very popular," a spokeswoman for Latvia's election commission said of the lower than usual turnout.
With the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 members, and a population that has swelled to 450 million, this year's European elections are bigger than ever.
But hot weather in many parts of Europe and the start of the Euro 2004 soccer tournament may have helped limit participation, even in former communist states where Western democracy is a relative novelty and EU membership a long-awaited prize.
Early indications from states that have already voted suggested some ruling parties could be in trouble.
In Britain, the ruling Labour Party came third in local elections that accompanied the EU voting on Thursday. The result of the EU vote has yet to be announced.
Czechs gave Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla's Social Democrats around 10 percent of the vote, according to polling agency SC&C. The rightist opposition Civic Democrats scored highest with 30 percent and the little reformed Communists in second place with 17 percent.
"We're halfway through our mandate, and that always makes it hard for a party," Spidla said.
BERLUSCONI CONFIDENT
In Italy, one the six countries that founded the forerunner of the EU in the 1950s, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi dismissed fears of a mid-term rebuke from electors who began two days of voting on Saturday.
"Defeat? Impossible," he told reporters after voting in his home town, Milan. The centre-right media tycoon aims to get at least 25 percent of voters to back his Forza Italia party.
Berlusconi sparked controversy earlier in the week by sending at least 30 million mobile phone users a text message reminding them to vote.
He said the messages were "intended to inform and help Italians", but failed to stave off a backlash on Saturday of a deluge of anti-Berlusconi chain messages.
"PM's office -- June 12 and 13 DON'T vote Berlusconi," read one, telling the recipient to forward the text to 10 friends. Another, purporting to be from the prime minister himself, said: "Don't vote for me...I want to go home."
Consumer groups said the state's use of text messages was a breach of privacy and opposition parties accused the media magnate prime minister of abusing the new technology.
"(Berlusconi) can sense he will lose and is playing all his cards, even the most desperate ones," former centre-left premier Massimo D'Alema told La Repubblica daily.
Voting also took place on Saturday in the Mediterranean island state of Malta for lawmakers for the Strasbourg-based legislature. Britain, the Netherlands and Ireland had all voted by Friday.
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