Originally written by Jacek K. on June 9, 2009 9:34 AM Turnout-wise, unsurprisingly, the lowest was on the ex-Soviet periphery: in Slovakia (19.6%), Lithuania (20.9%) and Poland (24.5%).

Another possible partial answer why the turnout in Poland was one of the lowest in Europe.

Only 50% of Poles say that to live in a democratic country is "very important" for them. That's still much better than in Ukraine (36%) and Russia (...16%).

See the following graph for several other countries. The five answers from left to right were: very important, rather important, rather unimportant, completely unimportant, don't know.

http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,7158144,Demokracja__Inni_cenia_ja_bardziej.html