Cyprus aims for high turnout for Euro-vote

The European Parliament's central election campaign aims to bring the European voters to the polls to choose their Parliament in the world's largest transnational election, said the head of the European Parliament Office in Cyprus, Tasos Georgiou.
Speaking at a press conference, Georgiou said the campaign would be carried out in the 27 member states in 23 official languages for the election of 736 mandates by the 375 million eligible voters. Some 36 million Europeans are first-time voters.
Georgiou said the issues at stake in the European elections are highly relevant with the citizens’ everyday lives.
The campaign focuses on topics that affect everyday lives to underline the significance of the European elections.
These topics are energy, financial market, traffic, security, science, education, consumer protection, migration, antidiscrimination and standardisation.
The campaign emphasizes that the people decide on Europe's direction. The logo of the EU for the Euro elections is ''It's your choice!''
The slogan was devised to encourage voters to think about the choices that have to be made on issues that affect their everyday lives, such as energy, family life and consumer rights.
The campaign will use several different tools, such as billboards, 3-dimensional street installations, choice Box, TV and Radio ads, election website and social media.
In March, the election campaign will have entries on Facebook and MySpace, show campaign material and pictures on Flickr. EU Tube will also carry a special European Parliament channel. Regarding the outdoor campaign, it has ten visuals, from which Parliaments’ information offices in the Member States have chosen four, on the basis of specific interests.
Cyprus has chosen four visuals in regards with the borders/migration, budget, energy and standardization, Georgiou said and added that for the campaign 3D street installations will be used, which will provoke a public debate and will create strong images for the Media.
“Such 3D installations of 4 metres long and 8 metres high will be installed in the Nicosia’s main Roundabout and in a parking place in the centre of Limassol”, he added.
Referring to the Choice Box, Georgiou said that it is a large, room-size, multi-media box, in which voters can express their views and make choices on different topics. The Choice Box will be placed in Ledra Street in Nicosia, by the end of April.
The unofficial EU target is to bring at least 50% of the voters to the polls. However, “in Cyprus the target is to bring more than 80%, and if we achieve that, it will be a great success”, Georgiou concluded.