I 2019, not even my fifth neighbor in Rosengård voted in the EU election.
This year, the LVU campaign, Quran burnings, and the war in Gaza are being used as new arguments against participating in the election.
As the founder of the Arabic-Swedish website Aktarr and a part of Malmö's democratic project, Kotada Yonus aims to increase voter turnout among foreign-born and first-time voters.
In Malmö, voter turnout decreased by two percent among young people between the ages of 18 and 29 and foreign-born individuals in the 2019 EU election.
In the electoral district of Kryddgården in Rosengård, only 19.8 percent of residents voted, according to Statistics Sweden (SCB). This was one of ten electoral districts in Sweden where fewer than every fifth resident voted.
Jaffar El-Moussawi runs a greengrocery store outside Rosengård city center in Malmö. He has voted in every election held in Sweden since he moved here 35 years ago. However, this year he has chosen to boycott the EU election.
However, it is completely unthinkable for the couple Ahmed and Samar to abstain from voting. As they leave the polling station in Rosengård, Samar says it is more important to vote now than ever.
