September party ratings: EKRE, Free Party at all-year lows
Support for the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) and the Free Party reached all-year lows in September, the results of a poll commissioned by ERR's online news portal and conducted by Turu-uuringute AS revealed.
Were Riigikogu elections to be held tomorrow, ten percent of voters would vote for EKRE while nine percent would vote for the Free Party. One month prior, EKRE had the support of 13 percent and the Free Party 10 percent of voters. Respective support for each of these two parties has reached an all-year low.
Meanwhile, the Center and Reform Parties both remain the most popular two parties, with both managing to increase their support since August as well; the Center Party has the support of 26 percent of voters (up from 24 percent in August) while the Reform Party is close behind with the support of 25 percent of voters (up from 23 in August).
Reform's 25-percent support is also the party's highest indicator of 2016, which may be explained by the positive effects of the presidential campaign in which candidates associated with the party enjoyed the greatest amount of public support.
The Social Democratic Party (SDE) earned 12 percent of voters' support, which indicates a three-percent drop compared to August but is on par with the party's more typical monthly ratings in 2016 (12-13 percent).
The Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) had the support of seven percent of voters in September, a two-percent increase from their August party rating as recorded by Turu-uuringute AS. IRL's monthly ratings have likewise hovered between 5-7 percent this year.
Among non-parliamentary parties, the Estonian Greens also earned the support of one percent of voters polled.
While support for the Center Party continues to remain high, a drop in support for the other two opposition parties has all but evened out total support between the current ruling coalition and the three opposition parties; while September numbers indicate that the ruling coalition (Reform, SDE, IRL) has the support of 44 percent of voters, opposition parties (Center, Free, EKRE) have the support of 45 percent of them.
Turu-uuringute AS polled 1,000 participants in face-to-face in-home visits across Estonia from Sept. 6-20. Data on those polled who did not indicate their party preference was removed in the process of calculating party ratings, making poll results comparable to the method used in Riigikogu elections.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla