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Euro-elections second day

May 23, 2014

European elections are on their second day, with Ireland and the Czech Republic going to the polls. The first day showed a likely setback for Dutch Eurosceptics, but seemed more positive for their British counterparts.

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Man sitting in polling station. AFP PHOTO / PAUL FAITH ( PAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images
Image: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images

Irish and Czech voters on Friday went to the polls on the second day of four-day European elections.

Turnout in Ireland, where just over 3 million people are eligible to vote, could be boosted by the local elections that are taking place at the same day.

The Czech Republic will be holding two days of elections, with the Czech protest party Ano under billionaire Andrej Babis the favorite to win the most seats ahead of its government coalition partner, the Social Democratic party (CSSD).

The Netherlands and Britain opened the elections on Thursday. The vote is to continue on Saturday as Latvians, Maltese and Slovakians head for the polling booths.

Sunday will see the remaining EU member states complete the voting.

Altogether 388 million Europeans are entitled to vote for 751 deputies in the European Parliament.

Official results of the elections will not be released until Sunday evening, after all 28 countries in the European Union have finished voting.

Swing to extremes?

Observers have been predicting that far-right and far-left parties may be the beneficiaries of discontent in the bloc caused by the repercussions of its ongoing financial crisis.

This prediction appears to have been borne out in Britain, where the anti-EU and anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) on Thursday made gains in local elections seen as an indicator for the European poll, which was held at the same time.

After a third of councils had been declared, UKIP, under its leader Nigel Farage, had gained almost 100 seats, while Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party had lost around 110. The preliminary result follows unprecedented gains in local elections for UKIP last year.

Farage said his party would now be "serious players" in the European elections and British general elections in 2015.

However, results from exit polls in the Netherlands appeared to buck the trend of a move to extremist parties, with the far-right, anti-Islam Freedom Party under Geert Wilders suffering severe setbacks.

An IPSOS exit poll published by Dutch state broadcaster NOS showed Wilders' party winning just 12.2 percent of the vote, down from 17 percent at the last election in 2009.

tj/dr (AFP, Reuters, dpa)