Norstat ratings: Isamaa support starts to rise again as Center Party's falls
Opposition parties Isamaa and the Social Democrats (SDE) both saw a rise in support over the past week, according to Norstat's latest weekly poll. In Isamaa's case, this reverses a weeks-long fall.
For the Center Party, also in opposition, the opposite is true – a recent rise has turned into a fall this week, Norstat says.
Norstat polls weekly on behalf of conservative think tank the Institute for Societal Studies, aggregating results over the past four weeks.
The latest results show Isamaa supported by 27.5 percent, Center by 16.8 percent, and the coalition Reform Party just behind Center at 16.7 percent.
Isamaa's rating rose by 1.1 points on the week, reversing its earlier decline. Center's support fell. Reform's rating remained unchanged.
The fourth opposition party, the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), polled at 16.2 percent (down from 16.5 the previous week).
SDE saw a slight rise to 11.2 percent (up from 10.4 the week before).
The sixth party in the Riigikogu, Eesti 200, which is in office with Reform, remains below the 5-percent threshold required to win seats under Estonia's electoral system. This week Eesti 200 polled at 3.1 percent, down from 3.6 percent a week earlier.
Meanwhile, the non-parliamentary Parempoolsed rated above the threshold at 5.6 percent in this week's Norstat poll.
The Estonian Greens (Rohelised) polled at 1 percent. All other parties combined had 1.9 percent support.
Support for the two governing parties totaled 19.8 percent. The four opposition parties together reached 71.7 percent.
The Norstat survey covered April 7 to May 4, and included 4,001 eligible Estonian citizens.
Norstat says it weighs its sample by various socio-economic factors, and excludes respondents without a party preference when calculating support.
Norstat claims a margin of error proportional to each party's support. For example, with Isamaa the most supported party, the margin is +/-1.72 percent, compared with +/-0.66 percent for Eesti 200.
Reform's Secretary General Timo Suslov said last week's Norstat poll was misleading, adding there is a general bias toward Isamaa since that party and the Institute for Societal Studies share a major donor.
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Editor: Urmet Kook, Andrew Whyte
