Meer europeanen gaan stemmen tijdens verkiezingen Europees Parlement (en)

Met dank overgenomen van EUobserver (EUOBSERVER) i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 27 mei 2009, 9:26.

The number of people intending to vote in the European Parliament elections next week has increased, with almost half of those asked saying they will cast their vote, a fresh poll has shown.

With eight days left until the start of the 4-7 June elections, some 49 percent say they will probably vote, with 43 percent of those stating they would "definitely" do so, according to a TNS Opinion survey conducted for the parliament and published on Tuesday (26 May).

The new results represent a substantial increase compared to a similar Eurobarometer survey last month, which said around 34 percent of the 375 million eligible voters would actually cast their vote.

Ten percent say they will "definitely not vote."

The previous European elections, in 2004, marked the lowest point in voter turnout when only 45 percent of the bloc's citizens voted.

The new poll shows the number of those who are certain to vote to be highest in Ireland (66%), Belgium (64%) – where the European elections coincide with local ones, and Malta (60%).

By contrast, the number of people who said they were sure they would not vote was highest in the UK (16%), Latvia (15%), Bulgaria and Poland (14%).

In Slovakia, which registered the lowest ever turnout (17%) in 2004, some 16 percent of the respondents said they would definitely vote, while 12 percent said they definitely would not.

The survey also shows people's awareness of the election date has increased – 49 percent now say they will take place in June, compared to 16 percent last month.

The citizens of Malta, Hungary and Cyprus were best informed on the issue, while the Finns, Portuguese and Dutch were the least knowledgeable about the voting date.

Contradictory results

The poll also indicates that 53 percent of the people are now interested in the elections and 46 percent are not, with the result contradicting those of a similar survey from last week.

That poll – also carried out by TNS Opinion – for the French Political Innovation Foundation showed the exact opposite trend on 18 May, saying 46% of the people were interested in the vote while 53% were not.

Meanwhile, the results of a separate Ipsos opinion poll for French daily 20 minutes and Le Point magazine published on Tuesday showed a different picture with regards to the number of people planning to vote.

It said the abstention level in France would be higher than 60 percent and the turnout no higher than 35 to 39 percent – although 45 percent of the French respondents in the TNS poll said they would "definitely vote."

The TNS Opinion survey was conducted from 4 to 15 May in all EU member states but due to legal restrictions on publishing the pre-electoral results in Greece, Italy and Luxembourg, the results for these countries have not been published.

The Ipsos poll was carried out on 22 and 23 May in France.

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