November party ratings: Independents gain, Reform, Center lose support

The opposition Reform and the coalition Center Party saw the largest drops in support among voters in November, while independent candidates saw the highest increase in support, it appears from the results of a nationwide survey commissioned by ERR's online news and conducted by Turu-uuringute AS.
If Riigikogu elections were to be held tomorrow, 27 percent of survey respondents indicating party preference would vote for the Center Party, while 22 percent would vote for the Reform Party, indicating drops in support of two and three percent, respectively compared to October figures.
Support for the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) and the Social Democratic Party (SDE), meanwhile, remained stable at 13 and ten percent, respectively, and the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) earned the support of eight percent of respondents. Both the Free Party and the Estonian Greens remained below the five-percent election threshold, however, at just four and three percent, respectively.
Compared to previous months, the percentage of voters expressing support for independent candidates grew significantly, to ten percent. According to sociologist Juhan Kivirähk, who conducted the survey, this could be explained as an effect of the recent local government council elections; he believed the large amount of support for independent candidates was tied to the popularity of election coalitions in the recent elections, which collectively came in second place behind the Center Party nationwide.
Turu-uuringute AS conducted in-person surveys with 1,008 eligibe voters between Nov. 1-14. Survey results reflect only the answers of those who indicated a political preference, making the results as comparable as possible to the outcome of actual Riigikogu elections. Altogether 29 percent of survey respondents did not indicate a political preference. When surveying 1,000 people, the maximum error does not exceed ±3.1 percent.
Editor: Aili Vahtla