Voters Showing Signs of Fatigue with Top Four Parties, Says Expert
Sociologist Andrus Saar said a slight decline in support for Estonia's big four political parties, as indicated by a poll last week, may be a sign that the electorate is growing tired of the mainstream political choices.
Saar told uudised.err.ee that a few of the fringe parties now have a chance of crossing the 5 percent threshold needed to enter the legislature.
Smaller parties may make more daring election promises than established political forces, and that could attract more votes, Saar said.
The TNS Emor poll published last week showed that the four biggest parties - the Center Party, Reform Party, Social Democrats and IRL - lost a total of seven percentage points of support in just a month, while smaller parties, currently not represented in Parliament, have inched closer to the threshold.
The Green Party saw its popularity rise to 5 percent, the Conservative People's Party is supported by 4 and the Independence Party by 2 percent of respondents in the poll.