Low turnout fears as vote starts in EU

Agence France-Presse

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Britain and the Netherlands kicked off the 27-nation election in which 375 million people are eligible to take part. But the success of the biggest-ever transnational elections could be tempered by a record low turnout and a focus on national rather than European politics. After the British and Dutch votes, attention will turn today to Ireland and the Czech Republic. Cyprus, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia will go to the polls on Saturday before Europe's Super Sunday, when the other 19 EU nations - including France, Germany, Italy and Spain - will round off the voting.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under increasing pressure amid a scandal over expenses by members of the country's national parliament, which has seen ministerial heads roll.

His governing Labour Party could be beaten into third place in the European election - behind the Conservatives and Liberals - with even the anti-EU UK Independence Party snapping at its heels, according to opinion polls.

All eyes in the Netherlands are on far-right leader Geert Wilders. A Dutch opinion poll predicted the Christian Democratic, or CDA, Party of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende would get 14 percent of the vote, and its governing partner, the labour PvdA party, 12 percent.