ArmInfo.Armenia is close to Swiss electoral standards. All that is left to do is to equate standards of living. According to the summary table for the national elections in the EU / EFTA countries, the lowest voter turnout is usually recorded in the most prosperous Switzerland. Thus, in the latest parliamentary elections in Switzerland in 2015, the turnout was 48.5%.
As experts write, the problem is that it is incorrect to compare European countries, as in some countries turnout is obligatory (Luxembourg, Belgium), in others everything depends on the importance of the elections - most often they are parliamentary countries, but there are presidential ones: for example, France, Romania.
The situation becomes clearer if we look on differences between Eastern and Western Europe. Turnout is slightly higher in Northern Europe than in Southern Europe. In experts' opinion it seems, that the effectiveness of democracy, the conviction of people that it works well, correlates with the turnout. Moreover, such a tendency can be observed in Serbia, Albania, Ukraine and Russia, although there may be some exceptions, such as more than 60% of the turnout in the latest parliamentary elections in Macedonia. As for the parliamentary elections in Russia, the real turnout, according to independent observers, was below 40%.
The highest turnout between 2015 and 2017 in European countries was recorded in Malta, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands - above 80%, the lowest in Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania and Switzerland- about 50%. Experts explain the low turnout in Switzerland by the fact that many important political issues are still resolved in numerous referendums, which reduces the importance of parliamentary elections.
To recall, voter turnout in early parliamentary elections in Armenia totalled 48.63%.