Voter turnout in the 2014 European Parliament Election in Poland

Mikołaj Cześnik , Karol Chwedczuk-Szulc , Mateusz Zaremba

Abstract

​European Parliamentary election 2014 were the third elections for countriesthat joined European Union in 2004, including Poland. As we may observefrom the very beginning of the EP’s history, elections suffer constant dropin voter turnout, and since 1999 the turnout total for less than 50%. There aremany theories explaining this state of affairs, with most notable “second-orderelections” and democracy deficit theories. Polish profile of voter turnout in EPelections seems to fit into frameworks of these theories, and is positioned amongEU’s members with the lowest turnout. What is specific for electoral behaviour inPoland is stability: the turnout and support for political parties seems to stable andeven petrified. This assessment seems to be supported by the results of electionwithin past four years, both on aggregate and individual levels of data.