Center Party Popularity at 4-Year High, Polls Reveal
The latest TNS Emor polls show that the Center Party, which collected the most votes nationwide in the recent local elections, is backed by 32 percent of voting-age population, its best result since 2009.
The monthly poll, commissioned by ERR, showed that the party gained three percentage points since last month, while support for other large parties was far more steady.
The Social Democrats kept their second place in the ranking, with 23 percent and no change since last month. IRL, the big mover after the elections, lost momentum and two points to drop to 20 percent.
The ruling Reform Party, which sank to its lowest rating since 2005, surprisingly gained one point, despite minister of culture and Reform Party heavyweight Rein Lang being ousted from his ministerial post.
Aivar Voog, who heads the polling project at Emor, said that the Center Party's continued popularity is down to winning local elections. Support for the Social Democratic Party, he said, spikes when the party is in the news, such as when its members used filibustering tactics in the state budget vote last month, but its ratings fall when it is out of the media spotlight.
The percentage of people without a clear preference was again very low, at 31 percent, far lower than the 43 percent and 36 percent recorded in the two months before the October 20 local elections.