IRL Gains Big in Latest Poll for Tallinn, But Center Retains Mountainous Lead
IRL's mayoral candidate for Tallinn, Eerik-Niiles Kross, picked up three additional percentage points in the latest monthly poll, while his party climbed past both Reform and the Social Dems to second most popular party in the capital.
While in the August edition of the ERR-commissioned TNS Emor poll Savisaar had 48 percent support and Kross 6 percent, the gap in October stands at 39 percent to 15 percent.
At the party level, however, the Center Party's support in the capital has remained constant throughout this time - 50-51 percent. IRL picked up nine percentage points, and now has 20 percent. The Social Democrats had 15 percent, a slight gain from September. The Reform Party shed nearly half of its percentage points, falling to just 8 percent.
Aivar Voog, an analyst with Emor, said IRL's gains had come at the expense of Reform, its partner in the national governing coalition. He attributed it to Kross's campaign, which was highly visible and employed guerrilla tactics.
Ott Lumi, a PR expert, said on ERR radio that the last 72 hours before Election Day on Sunday will be of decisive importance, as parties muster up a last push to the finish line.
Unsurprisingly, other Savisaar challengers emphasized the mayoral race numbers and the top election coalition repeated calls that parties be more open to cooperating with them.
Karli Lambot, chairman of Free Tallinn Citizen, told uudised.err.ee: "The declining trend in the Center Party is a clear message that power can change in Tallinn only in cooperation with [our] election coalition."
The election coalition's candidate, former Tallinn mayor Hardo Aasmäe, gained points in the standing and his 6 percent now beats out the Social Democrats' Andres Anvelt (5 percent) and Reform's Valdo Randpere (4 percent).
Mart Helme of the Conservative People's Party had 5 percent support, better than his party, which polls at just 1 percent in Tallinn.