Podkowa Lesna, a Warsaw suburb, showed the highest voter turnout in the 7 June European Parliamentary elections and was bestowed the honour of ‘Europe’s Bellybutton.’
The ‘7th of June Coalition’ is to thanks for the turnout results, which were over 50 percent in the small town. The Coalition ran a vigorous voting campaign throughout Poland from April under the title ‘Europe’s Bellybutton’ to bring people in rural areas to the polls.
While the population of Podkowa Lesna is small – 3,211 people eligible to vote – over fifty percent of the voting population turned out at the polls – 1,634 people voted.
This rate, of 50.86 percent, was the highest in Poland and will earn the town a commemorative plaque to be bestowed by Marcin Meller, the Coalition’s ambassador and son of former Foreign Minister Stefan Miller.
The campaign has been taking place on Coalition’s website as well and the virtual ‘Bellybutton of Europe’ title was won by Czarna Woda, a small town in Pomerania, where the highest number of people declared in a web poll that they voted in the European elections.
This year’s ‘7th of June Coalition’ campaign cost 600,000 zloty and was targeted at small towns, villages and larger cities throughout Poland. It was funded largely through European Union support funds for non-governmental organizations.
Voter turnout for the Sunday European Parliament elections averaged 24.53 percent, over three percent higher than in the 2004 elections which averaged 20.87 percent. The European Union-wide average voter turnout was 43 percent, four percent lower than for an previous election. (mmj)