13NFL1-Compulsory Voting
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COUNTRIES GREECE
COMPULSORY VOTING HAS INCREASED VOTER TURNOUT IN GREECE, EVEN WITHOUT
AN ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM.
Anthoula Malkopoulou postdoctoral researcher at the Finnish Academy Project, "Lost Voters Participation in EU elections and the case for compulsory voting, Centre for European Policy Studies Working Document No. July 2009. In Greece too, no enforcement system is in place. Yet the election law clearly stipulates sanctions for nonvoting that entail imprisonment or deprivation of public office (Constitution, 2001; Election Law, 2007).5 Although no implementation mechanisms are in place and compulsory voting exists only in abstracto, participation rates (around 80%) are still higher there than in the rest of the EU, the recent 53% being the lowest ever recorded. The same is true for Italy, which abolished the law in 1993. Hence, inmost cases, even when enforcement is very lax or absent, the system seems to work. Surprisingly, voters still tend to adhere to the rule, not really for fear of punishment, but rather driven by popular belief or political custom.
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