EP elections - slight decline in turnout

Published: 9 June 2009 y., Tuesday

Parlamento rinkimai Lenkijoje
Provisional turnout figures for the election are set at 42.94%, according to the TNS Polling agency. This is around the same level as 2004, with only a slight decrease by 1.55%. In 2004 the amalgamated turnout of the 25 Member States was 44.40 %. Since then, Romania and Bulgaria have subsequently joined the Union.

Out of the 376 million EU citizens eligible to vote, 162 million people voted.
 
Turnout varied per country, some having a higher turnout than in 2004 and others with a decrease. The biggest turnouts were in Luxembourg with 91%, Belgium 90.3%, (where voting is compulsory) and Malta with 78.8%. In the UK the turnout was 34.27% and in the Republic of Ireland 57.6%. 
 
The biggest increase in turnout occurred in some of the smaller Member States.
 
Speaking after the poll the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, said that: “MEPs and the media need to work together - they are responsible politically. We must ensure continuous reporting of the EP's work in coming years and I am sure the turnout will be better in 2014.”
 
Mr Pöttering compared the turnout with the US mid-term elections for the House of Representatives where the turnout is almost always below 50%.

Šaltinis: europarl.europa.eu
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

The most popular articles

Occupied Palestinian Territory: Commission boosts humanitarian funding by €7 million

The European Commission is increasing its funding by €7 million to provide relief to the most vulnerable populations in the occupied Palestinian territory. more »

World leaders shifted a great deal of their responsibility to local and regional authorities which have to make Copenhagen a real success

As the COP15 Summit did not reach a legally binding agreement at international level, local and regional leaders will have to step in to make the Copenhagen deal a real success. more »

Copenhagen climax

Barroso says negotiations were toughest he can remember. more »

Carbon Emissions from Transport Sector in Vietnam Remain High

Rapidly increasing emissions of carbon dioxide from the transport sector, particularly in urban areas, is a major challenge to sustainable development in developing countries. more »

Copenhagen: Leaders back to the negotiating table

The heads of state and government who met late yesterday evening to resolve some problems in the climate negotiations continued their meeting on Friday morning. more »

Human Rights: Uganda and Azerbaijan

Two human rights resolutions - on anti-homosexual draft legislation in Uganda and freedom of expression in Azerbaijan - were approved by Parliament on Thursday. more »

Copenhagen: Discussions continue into the night

At this moment, political leaders from the world’s largest countries are sitting in Copenhagen negotiating a global response to the threat of climate change. more »

Negotiations between the EU and Morocco in the agri-food and fisheries sector: signature of agreed minutes

The Moroccan and EU negotiators signed an agreed minute concluding negotiations that have been ongoing for almost four years in view of a future agreement on improving bilateral trade conditions for products from the agri-food and fisheries sector. more »

Belarus: more democratisation needed before sanctions are lifted, say MEPs

MEPs have given their backing to the Council's recent decision to prolong sanctions against certain Belarusian officials whilst suspending the application of travel restrictions until October 2010. more »

New climate offer from African Union

The EU and the African Union (AU) met in Copenhagen. AU chief negotiator, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, informed the meeting about the offer from the African Union that he had presented earlier in the day. more »