13NFL1-Compulsory Voting
Page 56 of 163
www.victorybriefs.com
LOW TURNOUT
VOTER TURNOUT IS LOW AND GETTING LOWER.
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. Participation in the EU elections has been constantly decreasing from 62% into in
2009. In the seven direct elections to the European Parliament so far, the turnout has fallen by an average of 3% each time, the largest drop occurring in the 1999 elections (7%). Of course, voter abstention is a common phenomenon in many countries around the world, more so in Western Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan. In the past, some electoral scholars (Morris- Jones, 1954) have argued that a low turnout is not necessarily a bad thing. It might even be considered as an indication of voter satisfaction and trust in the established system. This view, however, is rather out of step with the growing demand for participatory democracy in today s world.
|
