Survey Measures Voter Fickleness
Estonian voters tend to switch allegiances at least as easily as in other countries, and the Centre Party has the most loyal voters, a survey has found.
Published in Parliament's periodical Riigikogu Toimetised, an article by Mihkel Solvak of the Univeristy of Tartu's Institute of Government and Politics details the results of a survey of voters from March 2011.
The poll was part of the international Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), conducted in 50 countries and for the first time in Estonia, reported Postimees.
About 11.6 percent of voters switched loyalties in the 2011 general elections, which Solvak says is comparable to the Western European average.
Only 55 and 54.5 percent of voters stayed true to Reform Party and IRL, respectively, from 2007 to 2011. Both parties lost sizeable (15-20 percent) blocs of voters to the Social Democrats, while Rerform Party lost votes to IRL as well.
Centre's voters were the most constant, with 70.3 percent of those who voted for them in 2007 remaining in their court four years later. For Centre voters in 2007, Reform seemed anathema - none of the respondents switched in 2011 - although 3.4 percent defected to IRL.
Conversely, a small number of 2007 Reform voters switched to Centre - 2.6 percent - while Centre seemed more unacceptable for IRL voters - only 1 percent switched.
Kristopher Rikken