Today, the electorate is called to vote for the European Union elections.
According to Schmitt (2005), such elections typically garner less interest because many voters perceive that less is at stake. If a low turnout compared to a general election is observed by the time the election ends later today, it can be attributed to the characterization of these elections as second-order elections.
Some academics further argue that this is the worst time for a party in government. For example, Reif (1985) contends that parties in government tend to perform poorly if a second-order election, such as the European Parliament elections, is held in the middle of their mandate. It is argued that voters often use these elections to express dissatisfaction with the current government, which can lead to significant losses for ruling parties.
After today’s MEP election results, one would expect that the party in government, which is heading towards its fourth general election, will suffer a significant decrease in support, while other parties, including a list of independents, would gain from this lost support.
If this scenario does not occur significantly, it validates the assertion made by President Metsola in her 2003 LLD thesis titled Electoral Systems and Electoral Outcomes: A Comparative Study on page 9, where she states that:-
“Every democracy has a different set of priorities…”
