Poll: National Coalition Party overtakes Centre for second place
Left Alliance loses support as chair resigns
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If Parliamentary elections were held now, a fresh poll indicates that the opposition National Coalition Party would make considerable gains - largely at the expense of the Centre Party.
According to the poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, public support for the National Coalition Party is at its highest in nearly six years.
The first interviews for the poll were taken a week after the Presidential elections, and the last were taken on Friday.
According to the survey, 22.5 percent of voters would cast their ballots for a candidate of the National Coalition Party, if the Parliamentary elections were held now.
Support for the party has risen by 1.5 percentage points during the past year, and by five points in the past two years; compared with the most recent Parliamentary elections in 2003, the party has gained nearly four points. The increase is greater than the poll's margin of error, which in the case of the larger parties is just under two percentage points in both directions.
Support for the Centre Party has gone down by 1.5 percentage points in the past year, and by more than two percent over the past two years. The poll puts the Centre's support at 22 percent.
Most significant for the Centre is that its support has declined by 2.7 points from the last parliamentary elections, dropping the party into third place from its number-one position in 2003.
The poll gives the Social Democratic Party 25.8 percent support, down from 26.4 percent in December, which was the highest figure for the SDP since 1999.
The latest poll puts the Social Democrats 1.3 percentage points above the result of the 2003 elections.
Support for the Left Alliance has dropped from the previous parliamentary elections by 1.3 percentage points to 8.7 percent. Interviews for the poll were being conducted in the midst of the controversy surrounding the Left Alliance, which led to the resignation of the party's chair Suvi-Anne Siimes.
Of the smaller parties, the Christian Democrats seem to be losing support. The True Finns are doing petter - possibly on the coattails of the presidential campaign of party leader Timo Soini.
There were no significant changes in support for the Green League or the Swedish People's Party.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 14.3.2006 - TODAY |
 Poll: National Coalition Party overtakes Centre for second place |
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