EP election abstention down to financial difficulties
Matthew Vella
A Eurobarometer survey carried out by the European Parliament has found that people who were encountered the most difficult paying their bills at the end of the month, did not voted in the 2009 MEP elections.
This survey was conducted one week after the European elections of June 2009, between 12 June and 6 July. A total of 26,830 European citizens were interviewed face to face.
The survey was carried out in order to clarify the reasons why European electors voted or abstained in these elections, after registering a turnout of 43% across the EU.
But interestingly, respondents who declared that they generally find it difficult to pay their bills at the end of the month, formed the group with the most important abstention rate – 66.1% abstention rate from the 57% of the total electorate that did not vote.
According to the survey, the 2009 European Parliament elections saw fewer female voters than male, fewer young voters than elderly voters, fewer unemployed voters than senior management voters, fewer voters who had left school early than voters who had continued an education programme, and slightly fewer voters in big cities than in rural areas.
The findings show that most of the abstainers decided not to vote primarily because of a lack of confidence in politics in general.
As for the reasons for voting, the most important factor for electors to vote was out of civic duty by far.
In terms of voters’ attitudes, 70% had decided a long time ago in advance who they would vote for, but 50% declared that they always vote for the same political party or the same candidate. Only 13% decide in the weeks or days (9%) preceding the election, or on the day of the election itself (6%) who to vote for.
One can estimate that it is these 28% of voters that are the most sensitive to electoral campaigns, with the media coverage increasing in the days preceding the ballot.
The most significant differences were found in the ages of voters, where the older the
group is, the higher the participation rate is. 29% of 18-24 year-olds voted, which represents 14 percentage points under the European average, and four percentage points lower than in 2004.
The higher the level of education, the higher the participation rate: respondents who have pursued an education beyond the age of 20 were the most numerous to go to the polls (52%). Those still in the middle of their studying years were on their part 34% to vote.
The survey also found a “distinctive cleavage” between respondents according to their occupation. Categories where the participation rates are the lowest were: 28% of the unemployed voted; 33.9% of the students voted; 35.9% of the manual workers voted.
Categories with the highest participation rates were executives directors and Managers (53.5%), self-employed (51%) and 49% of pensioners, confirming a trend that elders mobilise more for the elections.
The survey finds that a third of the abstainers in this election (57% of the electorate) said they decided not to vote at the last moment. One abstainer in five (22%) said that they never vote.
The survey says that the fact that some abstainers do not feel an attachment to Europe, while others do, raises the question of the absence of a European debate.
Within this abstaining group (57%), the main reason not to vote are lack of confidence in, or dissatisfaction with, politics in general (28%); feeling that one’s vote is inconsequential (17%); disinterest in politics (17%); lack of knowledge of the EU and the EP and about the elections (10%); disinterest in European matters (9%); dissatisfaction with the EP as an institution (8%); lack of electoral campaigning (6%).
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