Slovaks approve EU entry despite turnout worries

Slovakia overwhelmingly approved European Union entry in a referendum yesterday, but victory celebrations were tempered by poor voter turnout that nearly invalidated the result.

After polls in the two-day plebiscite closed yesterday afternoon, politicians could only sit and nervously watch as results trickled in.

There was little question that the country was strongly in favour of joining the bloc next May, with opinion polls showing nearly 80 per cent wanted accession.

Voters had been expected to be apathetic, and they were, with turnout lurking just below the 50 per cent threshold needed to make the result stand with less than an hour left in the voting.

Official results were not released, but Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said in a speech that the country had given a resounding yes to accession, and more importantly, that the referendum was valid.

"The referendum is valid, and an overwhelming majority of our citizens said 'Yes', for Slovakia to enter the EU. Good luck to you all in the EU!" Dzurinda said in a speech to the nation.

He did not give exact numbers for either the percentage of votes cast in favour of EU entry, or for the turnout.

Preliminary results calculated by local news agencies showed turnout was 52.1 per cent with accession approval over 90 per cent. Official results are expected later today.

"We were sweating it out a bit in the morning and afternoon because it looked touch and go, but at the end of day, it turned out fine," European Commission ambassador to Slovakia Eric Van der Linden told Reuters.

"Out of all countries that have had referenda, the percentage of 'yes' votes appears to be the highest."

The low turnout comes barely a month after only 46 per cent of voters cast their ballots in neighbouring Hungary's referendum that voted in favour of accession. Poland and the Czech Republic vote on the issue in June.

Malta, Lithuania, and Slovenia have also held referenda that gave the green light to joining the group of wealthier European nations in May 2004.

Analysts blamed the poor turnout on several factors.

They said some stayed away in protest against Dzurinda's pro-Western government which has implemented harsh, but badly needed reforms as Slovakia clawed its way back from the political and economic isolation it endured in the mid-1990s under the reign of autocratic Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar.

The government's promotional campaign has also been criticised for failing to answer key questions on what EU membership means for ordinary Slovaks.

The apathy shown by the electorate is an embarrassment to both the government and the EU, which spent millions of euros on a campaign to inform the country's five million citizens on the benefits of joining an enlarged European Union.

"People didn't realise that this vote was about themselves. They were given useless general information about issues such as the European parliament and other bureaucratic issues that are basically irrelevant to their daily lives," said political commentator Peter Javurek.

"They just did not connect the vote with their own futures."