Study shows more people willing to vote

More people are saying they will vote in next week's European Parliament elections but the predictions are still of a record low turnout of 60 per cent.

The latest survey by the European Parliament, carried out over the phone early in May among a random sample of 500 people, shows that only 60 per cent said they would definitely vote, an increase of four per cent on a similar survey in February and 13 per cent more when compared to a year ago.

Some 34 per cent are still undecided and six per cent said they would definitely not vote.

However, the turnout probability is expected to rise in the last days of the electoral campaign as the political parties intensify their efforts to rally sympathisers.

In fact, the interpretation of the EP survey has to take into account the high number of people who are still undecided. Sources from both main political parties said yesterday that both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party were expecting a better turnout than 60 per cent, although they believe this would be lower than that of 2004.

The EP survey shows that the Maltese are still fanatic about their politics, so much so that they are the most interested in the upcoming elections among all the voters in the European Union.

Asked to say if they were aware of the election date (June 6), 80 per cent of Maltese respondents said they were. This is in sharp contrast with 75 per cent in the case of the Finns and 60 per cent in Portugal who did not know the date.

Questioned on whether they were interested in the EP elections, the Maltese again turned out to be the most interested of the EU electorate with 72 per cent responding in the affirmative. On the other hand, 26 per cent said they were not interested.