Interest high on EU election day opener

Interest for the "forgotten" EU election appears to be greater than at first feared.

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At least if any conclusion can be drawn from the numbers that turned out in Gothenburg as pre-voting for the June 7th election got underway.

"There has generally been a great deal of interest," according to Jonas Andrén at the Gothenburg election committee to news agency TT.

By Wednesday evening the votes had not yet been counted but early indications pointed to a larger than normal turn out.

"Without having an exact check there are many more voting on the first day than in the voting prior to the 2006 general election, said Andrén, who has extensive experience of election voting.

Gothenburg has 45 locations in which to place a vote for the EU parliamentary elections. These include public libraries, local government buildings, at election booths across the city centre and in business centres.

One of the main locations is in the Nordstan shopping centre - Scandinavia's largest - where by 10pm, 900 people had placed their vote. In 2006, only 278 had taken the chance to vote on the first day of pre-voting.

"We had thought that it would be a calmer opening for the election workers. We were prepared but..."

It is expected that official voting statistics from the opening day's voting in Gothenburg will be compiled on Thursday.

Pre-voting for the EU election on June 7th opened at locations all across Sweden on Wednesday.

Recent surveys indicate that as many as half of the Swedish electorate are unlikely to vote in the election. A Synovate poll published in Dagens Nyheter on Wednesday morning indicated that 45 percent of Swedes do not even know that the June election is taking place.