IRL and Social Democrats the most popular second choice among voters
When choosing alternatives, most voters who would otherwise support either Reform or the Center Party, would opt for IRL and the Social Democrats, if asked to pick alternatives.
Polls by TNS Emor show 27 percent of voters would opt for IRL and the same percentage for the Social Democrats if their first choice party would not take part.
The Reform Party has a third choice rating of 15 percent, while the Center Party would only have 9 percent support as an alternative choice. Of the fringe parties, the Greens come highest with 7 percent.
The figures are somewhat of a reverse of the December poll, also conducted by Emor, which gave the Reform Party a 32-percent backing as the main choice among the Estonian political parties, followed by the Center Party (23 percent), the Social Democrats (21), IRL (16) and the Greens (2 percent).
IRL is the alternative choice of both Reform Party and Social Democrat voters, while the Social Democrats are the second choice of IRL and Center Party electorate.
University of Tartu political scientist Mihkel Solvak said that the popularity of the two largest parties, the Reform Party (12,892 members) and the Center Party (14,337) are cyclical. The first has high ratings during elections and dwindles between election periods, while the Center Party ratings show an opposite development.
Editor: J.M. Laats, S. Tambur