Poll: 43% support Ülle Madise as next president
Forty-three percent of respondents support frontrunner Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise becoming Estonia's next president, while 36 percent do not, according to a Norstat poll commissioned by the Ühiskonnauuringute Instituut.
The results of the survey showed that 43 percent of respondents chose "yes" and "rather yes" when asked if they supported Madise's election, while 36 percent answered "no" and "rather no." Twenty-one percent of respondents did not give an answer.
Madise is most popular with Reform voters (83 percent), followed by opposition party SDE (69 percent), non-parliamentary party Parempoolsed (69 percent), and Isamaa (57 percent).
The majority of respondents from opposition party EKRE (79 percent) do not support Madise's election, and half of Center (50 percent).
In the poll, respondents were also given a list of names and asked who they would like to see as the next president.
Respondents' preferences were as follows:
Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise 29 percent, EKRE's Mart Helme 12 percent, TalTech Rector Tiit Land 9 percent, diplomat Hannes Hanso 5 percent, entrepreneur Indrek Neivelt 3 percent, diplomat Jüri Luik 2 percent, Gen. (Ret).Riho Ühtegi 2 percent, diplomat Jonatan Vseviov 2 percent, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for the Internal Market and Industry Maive Rute 0.6 percent, CEO of Estonia Pianos Indrek Laul 0.3 percent, diplomat Matti Maasikas 0.2 percent.
Fifteen percent would like to see some other candidate, while 20 percent had no preference.
Citizens support direct presidential elections
Respondents were also asked whether the president should be directly elected by the people. Seventy percent of respondents said "yes" or "rather yes," 22 percent said "rather no" or "no," and eight percent said, "don't know."
Direct presidential elections are most popular among voters of EKRE (97 percent), Center (88 percent), Isamaa (74 percent) and Parempoolsed (54 percent).
It was below 50 percent for respondents who support Reform and SDE.
The survey also showed that 66 percent of those polled think the president should initiate new legislation to change the voting procedure to direct elections.
The Norstat poll was conducted online from August 19 to 20 among Estonian citizens aged 18 and older and included 1,002 respondents.
The first round of the presidential election will take place on September 2.
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Editor: Helen Wright, Urmet Kook
