BRUSSELS, May 25 (KUNA) -- The vast majority of European Union (EU) countries (21 out of 28) will go to the polls on Sunday, May 26.
Over 360 million EU citizens are eligible to vote to elect the 751 Members of the European Parliament to represent them for the next five years.
If the UK leaves the EU on October 31, the number of MEPs will be reduced to 705.
Voting took place in two EU countries, the Netherlands and the UK on the first day on 23 May.
Ireland voted on Friday and Latvia, Malta and Slovakia are voting today Saturday, according to European Parliament data.
The Czech Republic votes on two days Friday and Saturday. Voting is compulsory in five EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Luxembourg.
The European Parliament in Brussels will publish the results of the European elections per country on Sunday night after all 28 EU countries have voted. More than 15,000 candidates representing a vast political spectrum from the extreme far right to the extreme left are standing in the elections.
Voter turnout in the 2014 European Parliament elections was 42.6 percent. The highest voter turnout was in Belgium with 89 percent and the lowest in Slovakia with 13 percent.
European political parties have chosen lead candidates to stand as the President of the European Commission, the EU's executive body. After the elections, and taking into account the results, EU leaders will propose a candidate for Commission President and the EP will vote on the new president in July.
The present European Parliament's term ends July 1 and the new parliament will take its seats on July 2.
The new European Commission should take office on November 1.
On Sunday, the European Parliament will be transformed into a big media hub where around 1,300 journalists will follow and report from the elections.
"The media interest for these elections has been much higher than for previous elections. We never had so many journalists registered for the election night. This clearly demonstrates the growing importance of this trans-national democratic exercise, which is unique in the world," said Jaume Duch, spokesperson of the European Parliament in a statement Saturday. (end) nk.gta