The Centre Party has increased its popularity slightly among the Finnish electorate, while support for the three largest parties has largely remained stable.
A poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, also indicates a slight increase in uncertainty among voters in advance of next year’s general election.
The National Coalition Party remains the most popular, with 23.3 per cent support. Coming in second is the Social Democratic Party (20.9 per cent) and third is the Centre Party (20.4 per cent.).
There were no big surprises for the medium-sized parties. The Greens get 9.9 per cent support, and the Left alliance gets 8.5 per cent.
Both show a decline of 0.1 percentage points since March.
Also maintaining their support are the Christian Democrats (4.4 per cent) and the Swedish People’s Party (4.3 per cent).
The populist True Finns party has continued to decline. It’s support among the electorate is 6.9 per cent, down from nine per cent last summer.
Respondents were also asked how sure they are about their choice of parties.
Currently 39 per cent of the present voters of the various parties said that they are very sure about their choice of parties. This shows a decline from last March.
The greatest proportion of unsure candidates were among supporters of the Green League, only a quarter of whom were very sure about their choice.
There was a correlation between certainty of party choice and age; the younger the respondent, the less certain he or she was about party choice. Those over 60 rarely hesitate at the polling booth.
Data for the poll was collected between March 15th and April 9th. The survey involved telephone interviews with 2,844 Finns of voting age in all areas except the Åland Islands.
The margin of error with the larger parties is two percentage points in either direction.
