Swedes to shun EU elections: poll

A total of 48 percent said they planned to cast their ballots, while 52 percent said they would not, the Sifo poll conducted for Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio showed.

Sixty four percent said they had no interest or little interest in the elections.

In the 2004 European parliament elections, voter turnout in Sweden was a

meagre 37.8 percent.

The numbers are far below the usual turnout for elections in the country, which tends to hover around 80 percent.

Henrik Oscarsson, an election researcher at Gothenburg University, told Sveriges Radio he expected Swedes’ interest to remain lukewarm in the run-up to the June 7th vote.

“There’s not going to be any major increase if you look at these numbers, turnout is going to be around 40 percent but let’s hope it’s a little higher than that,” he said.

He said the lack of interest and low voter turnout “hurts the European parliament’s political legitimacy.”

Sweden joined the European Union in 1995.

The Sifo poll questioned 1,000 people in Sweden from March 30th to April 2nd.