The survey, conducted on a weekly basis by conservative think tank the Institute for Societal Studies and polling firm Norstat Estonia AS, found that 28.7 percent of respondents supported Isamaa, 19.2 percent pledged their support for the Reform Party, while 13.1 percent said they back the Center Party.

This represents no change in place or significant change in level of support for Isamaa and the Reform Party, Center has risen to third place, albeit virtually neck-andneck with both the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), at 13 percent support, and the Social Democratic Party (SDE), with 12.7 percent.

SDE's rating has dropped by five percentage points over the past five weeks, causing the party to fall from second to fifth place in the rankings.

Among the six Riigikogu parties, Eesti 200 continues to poll the lowest, at 4.3 percent – below the 5-percent threshold required to win seats at a Riigikogu election under Estonia's d'Hondt system of proportional representation.

Overall the three elected opposition parties: Isamaa, EKRE and Center, polled higher together, at 54.8 percent, than the three coalition parties – Reform, SDE and Eesti 200, who polled at 36.2 percent combined according to Norstat.

Once a month, Norstat also asks respondents about their opinion of the performance of the current government and prime minister.

In the latest results, 27 percent of respondents found the government is performing either "very well" or "quite well," compared with 66 percent who found it is doing "quite poorly" or "very poorly."

As for Prime Minister Kristen Michal's (Reform) performance, 25 percent of respondents said they approve of it compared with 43 percent how said they disapprove. A further 32 percent responded "don't know."

Norstat conducts its polls on a weekly basis, aggregating the results over the preceding four weeks. The latest period ran September 2 to September 29 inclusive, when just over 4,000 Estonian citizens of Riigikogu voting age were quizzed.

Norstat says it weights its sample in line with various socio-demographic indicators, and uses a combined phone and online method when quizzing respondents.

Norstat claims a margin of error in direct proportion to the size of party by support, so for instance the margin of error with Isamaa as most-supported party is +/- 1.72 percent compared with +/- 0.77 percent for Eesti 200 as least-supported of the Riigikogu parties at present.

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