Against a background of concerns that European Parliament elections from June 4 to 7 2009 would be marred by low voter turnout, freshly-released results of an opinion indicate an upward trend to a possible 49 per cent.
 
This is according to a June 4 statement by the European Parliament, drawing on an opinion survey done by TNS between May 4 and 15. A previous Eurobarometer survey, done in February, suggested that turnout would be 34 per cent.
 
The figures emerged as the UK and Netherlands went to the polls on June 4. In both cases, several surveys predicted turnout would be low, but in the UK, there were some claims that a higher turnout would be fuelled by public anger at the expenses scandal -- further damaging Gordon Brown’s Labour Party and hitting the Tories too. 
 
The European Parliament said that the latest data on early voting in European Parliament elections in Finland, Sweden and Estonia showed a positive trend in turnout.
 
Finland has now completed its early voting period, which took place between May 27 and June 2: 716 866 voters, 17.3 per cent of the electorate, have cast their ballots, 1.1 points above the 2004 elections early-voting figure of 16.2 per cent. In 2004 elections, final turnout was 2.5 times the number who voted early.
 
In Sweden, after 14 days of early voting, 422 517 people have cast their vote, which represents 5.96 per cent of the electorate. During the previous European elections in 2004, 4.19 per cent had voted during the same period of advanced voting, so there is an increase of 1.77 percentage points. Early voting goes on until election day, which is June 7 in in Sweden.
 
In Estonia, for the first time in European elections, voters can cast their ballot electronically. Since May 28, 51 011 voters have done so (until midday on June 4), which is 5.61 per cent of total voters (908 187). Since June 1, early voting also has been possible in some polling stations: 38 727 voters had voted by this method by the evening of June 3. E-voting and traditional early voting represents about nine per cent of the electorate so far. E-voting and early voting finish today at 7pm CET.
 
Early voting is also underway in Slovenia.
 
The new TNS survey said that 43 per cent respondents said they were certain to vote and six per cent very likely. Twelve per cent said they were certain not to vote, while in February 19 per cent said so.
 On June 3, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering called on EU citizens to vote.
 
Earlier, Poettering called on people to turn out to stave off gains by default by far-right parties.
 
In his June 3 statement, he said: "The elections to the European Parliament are of the greatest importance. They are a great occasion to re-launch the European Union and to address the issues that are important to citizens such as the economic crisis, unemployment, climate change, energy security, globalisation or immigration."
 
Poettering said: "Today approximately 75 per cent of the European Union legislation is decided by the European Parliament together with the Council of Ministers and has a direct impact in our daily lives. The greater the participation, the less likely that votes for extremist parties will distort the outcome."
 
The European Parliament represents European shared values, he said: The dignity of the human being, human rights, peace, freedom, democracy, justice, the rule of law, and the principles of solidarity and subsidiary. "Those values stand for our joint European identity."
 
"Now is a very good moment to give the European project new impetus and direction. I call on voters to support those parties that are in favour of European integration and that are committed to our European values," Poettering said.