EC hopes for 25% turnout in EP elections in Slovakia

"Although this elicits smiles among my partners in Slovakia, I'd like to see a 25-percent Slovak voter turnout in the upcoming European Parliament election. I think this is realistic and we're doing our utmost to make it happen," said the head of the Representation of the European Commission in Slovakia, Ladislav Miko, to the TASR press agency.  In the previous EP elections Slovakia finished last with only 13 percent of voters casting their ballots. "Yet on the other hand, 70 percent of Slovaks claim that EU membership is a good thing, and this discrepancy is difficult to explain," said Miko. One possible explanation is that Slovaks haven’t felt any threat in the past and there were no dramatic choices to be made between individual candidates, hence they didn't consider it worth their time to participate in the EU franchise. "It's not a tour to promote specific parties. Our campaign is institutional; we're trying to show people why this election is important and how they should approach it in order to elect people who will represent their interests well," added Miko.