Electoral Behaviour of Students – First-Time Voters in the European Parliament Election (2009)
Electoral Behaviour of Students – First-Time Voters in the European Parliament Election (2009)

Summary/Abstract: Slovak Republic achieved the lowest voters turnout in the European Parliament elections both in 2004 (16.9 %) and in 2009 (19.6 %). Slight increase in the turnout that was recorded in 2009 by 2.7 % to 19.6 % was with the first-time voters aged 20-23. The evaluation of the voters mobilization has been done by experts who claimed that the only difference between the pre-election campaigns in 2004 and 2009 were mobilization projects focused on students. These projects were financially supported by the European Parliament and the European Commission. One of them was the project SEP of the Department of Political Science, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. During 6 months this project developed activities focused on broadening the students knowledge about the European Union and the European Parliament. The results of the sociological analysis of turnout in the European Parliament elections cast doubt on the statement that the turnout of older citizens was higher than that of young people. Individual segments of young people in Slovakia had completely different voting behaviour. Especially university students identify their future with work in the EU. Therefore the university students turnout was very high (52 %), in fact it was the highest in EU in all structured groups in the 2009 European Parliament.

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