Pollsters Turu-uuringute AS found that 32 percent of respondents to the survey, conducted on the same day the state budget was approved at the end of September, picked the incumbent prime minister, Ratas, as their favorite for the job, daily Eesti Päevaleht reports (link in Estonian).

This represented a slight fall on his support in a survey on the same topic by the same firm the previous month, where it stood at 33 percent.

Kaja Kallas, leader of the larger of the two opposition parties, Reform, polled at 23 percent, the same figure she had picked up in Turu-uuringute's survey the previous moth.

Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDE) Indrek Saar saw a return to four percent support as prime minister after a brief rise in September to 7 percent, according to Turu-uuringute.

This included among SDE voters themselves, who often pick leaders of the two larger parties as preferred prime minister simply because of the latter's higher chances of getting the job – Reform has 34 Riigikogu seats and Center has 25, compared with SDE's 10.

However in the latest polls, Kaja Kallas on 26 percent outstripped Indrek Saar (23 percent) as most popular choice for prime minister among SDE voters alone. Jüri Ratas came in third among SDE voters, on 18 percent.

Theories appearing in the media behind the temporarily boosted popularity of the SDE leader, an actor by profession, include his recent appearance in a TV detective drama.

Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) leader Martin Helme polled 9 percent and Isamaa chief Helir-Valdor Seeder 2 percent, EPL reports. The proportion of respondents who answered "don't know" rose from 26 percent last month to 30 percent in the latest survey.

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