Conservative battle: EKRE overtakes IRL in popularity polls
According to the latest ERR commissioned party popularity poll, scandal hit Center Party keeps a strong lead, while conservatives battle it out at the back of the field.
Were the parliamentary election to take place tomorrow, the Center Party would get 27 percent of the votes, a poll by Turu-uuringute AS shows. Bribery allocations against its chairman Edgar Savisaar have only shed off 2 percentage points of support compared to September.
Second most popular, the Reform Party, has also lost 2 percentage points, now at 19 percent, while the Social Democrats have lost one and tie with the Free Party for third place (both at 14 percent).
The largest rise in popularity polls is shown by national conservative EKRE (Conservative People's Party of Estonia), which has gained 4 percentage points in ratings and leapfrogged IRL. EKRE now has the support of 10 percent and IRL 8 percent of polled people.
The opposition currently has more support than the coalition (51 to 41 percent).
Whereas the slight drops in ratings of the Center Party, Reform Party and the Social Democrats remain within the limits of statistical error, the rise of the Free Party and EKRE has to do with their opposition to the Estonian-Russian border agreement. Both are also against immigration, Juhan Kivirähk, of Turu-uuringute AS, explained.
Turu-uuringute AS interviewed 1,000 people from October 6-20.
Editor: M. Oll