Opposition, small parties reap rewards at poll

09/06/2009

Balkan voters gave a thumbs-down to ruling parties in an election marred by record-low turnout.

By Svetla Dimitrova in Sofia, Paul Ciocoiu in Bucharest and Christos Ringas in Athens for Southeast European Times -- 09/06/09

European voters elected the new 736 MEPs. [EP]

Despite efforts to boost interest, turnout for this year's European Parliament (EP) elections hit a record low. Only 43% out of the 375 million European voters participated in the vote, which was held Thursday (June 4th) through Sunday.

The EP had taken a number of steps to improve these figures, including ad campaigns and agreements with broadcasters. Despite slogans urging them to "use your vote", however, many opted to stay home.

"There is a generalised absenteeism trend across the entire Europe," local media quoted one young voter in Romania, where turnout was a scant 27.6%. "It's not just Romanian citizens not coming out to vote."

Among Balkan countries, participation was highest in Cyprus, where voters defied the overall European trend. Nearly 60% of them turned out for the country's second EP vote, electing six MEPs.

By a small margin, they backed the centre-right Democratic Rally Party, which in 2004 advocated the Annan Plan for Cyprus reunification. The party got 35.6% of the vote and will have two seats in the parliament.

Not far behind was the leftist AKEL party of President Demetris Christofias, who is currently in reunification talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. With 34.9%, AKEL also has two seats.

In general, opposition parties in the Balkans fared the best at the polls. Romania's Social Democrats, for instance, came in first with 31% of the vote, gaining 11 seats, while President Traian Basescu's Liberal Democrats finished second with 29.7%.

Likewise, Greek voters gave the edge to the leftist PASOK, which won 36.6% of the vote compared to 32% for the ruling New Democracy (ND) party. Both parties, however, will receive an equal number of seats -- eight -- in the new parliament.

The result -- ND's first election loss since 2004 -- showed the damage wrought by the global economic downturn and a series of political scandals. For PASOK leader George Papandreou, humiliated in two successive national elections and under pressure from factions within his own party, it was a welcome sign of resurgence.

In Bulgaria, voters delivered a rebuke to Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's Socialist Party, handing victory to the rightist Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB).

GERB, led by popular Sofia Mayor Boyko Borissov won 24.5% of the vote, compared to 18.6% for the Socialists. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, representing primarily the country's Turkish minority, was third with 14%. Turnout, at 37.5%, was below the European average but higher than the 29% recorded in Bulgaria's last EP vote, in 2007.

The EP elections were generally a boon to fringe parties, many of which made significant inroads or solidified their positions. The Greater Romania Party, for instance, managed to reap 8.6% of the vote and gain three seats in the EP. Last time around, it had been shut out.

Greece's rightist Popular Orthodox Rally surpassed expectations and finished in fourth place at 7%, while the Ecologist-Greens were able to win an EP seat. In Bulgaria, the ultranationalist Ataka party garnered 12%,