Party ratings: Slight fall in support for Center
The coalition Center Party has seen a slight fall in support over the past week, according to a recent poll. For most other parties, the situation is unchanged on the previous week.
The two coalition partners, Reform and Center, jointly polled 41.7 percent, compared with 37.7 percent for the three oppostion parties, the Cosnervative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), the Social Democratic Party (SDE) and Isamaa, according to the survey, conducted by pollsters Norstat on behalf of the MTÜ Ühiskonnauuringute Instituut.
EKRE on its own still polled more than any other party, continuing a recent trend, at 22.7 percent, followed by the Reform Party on 22 percent and the Center Party on 19.7 percent of voters, Norstat says.
The results for the top three parties are largely unchanged on the previous week's Norstat poll, though Center's position has weakened somewhat in the past fortnight, and is only slightly ahead of fourth-placed party, Eesti 200, who polled at 18.1 percent.
SDE and Isamaa were virtually neck-and-neck on 7.6 percent and 7.4 percent respectively, while the Green Party, who recently elected a new leader, saw a slight rise from 1.6 percent the previous week, to 1.9 percent.
Eesti 200 and the Greens do not have any Riigikogu seats, though Eesti 200 won its first local government seats at last October's local election.
Norstat's poll surveyed a little over 4,000 Estonian citizens of voting age, while the results are aggregated over the period January 25 to February 21.
Norstat says its margin of error is in proportion to the size of the party by respondents' votes, meaning EKRE, as most popular party according to the poll, has an error margin of +/- 1.3 percent compared with +/- 0.81 percent for Isamaa.
Norstat uses a hybrid phone and online survey when compiling its results, and says it weights its data according to key socio-demographic indicators.
The next elections are in March 2023, to the Riigikogu. Only Estonian citizens may vote in general elections; the franchise is wider for the EU elections (all EU citizens resident in Estonia) and largest for the local elections (all Estonian residents as well as citizens).
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
