Poll: Support rising for SDP
Ari Korhonen
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Jarmo Korhonen
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Taru Tujunen
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A decline in support for the opposition Social Democratic Party, which began in the summer of 2009 has turned around.
According to a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, support for the SDP has risen by 0.8 percentage points to 21.3 per cent since November 2009.
Support for the Green League has declined by 0.6 points to 10.0 per cent since November, and the True Finns have gone down by 0.4 points to 7.1 per cent.
The results of the poll would make the SDP Finland’s second largest party right after the National Coalition Party, and 1.4 percentage points ahead of the Centre Party.
Social Democratic Party Secretary Ari Korhonen attributes the improvement to the clear policy differences between the SDP and the government that have come out, as well as a reshuffle in the party’s Parliamentary group; Eero Heinäluoma recently replaced Tarja Filatov as the chair of the Parliamentary group.
National Coalition Party Secretary Taru Tujunen says the decline of the Centre Party reflects the decision by two of the party’s prominent women, Minister of the Environment Paula Lehtomäki and Minister of Transport and Communications Anu Vehviläinen to opt out of the race for the party’s leadership.
Centre Party Secretary Jarmo Korhonen blames the decline in support for his party primarily on the decision by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen to quit the party’s leadership. He also feels that Paula Lehtomäki’s decision not to run for the party’s chair is another reason.
“Two of the Centre Party’s most popular politicians are giving up. Their sympathy wave goes through the polling period”, Korhonen says.
With a margin of error of two percentage points, Juhani Pehkonen of Suomen Gallup does not see any major changes in the result of the poll.
The greatest fall from the outcome of the 2007 Parliamentary election was for the Centre Party, which got 23.1 per cent of the vote in the election, and 19.9 per cent in the fresh poll.
Support for the True Finns has risen by three points from the last Parliamentary election. The Greens show gains of 1.5 points, and the National Coalition Party has gone up by 0.8 per cent from 2007.
The poll suggests that the number of voters changing parties in the next election might rise. In the previous survey from November and December, 30 per cent of respondents were unsure of who they would vote for. Now the uncertain voters have gained by six percentage points to 36 per cent.
The percentage of uncertain respondents was greatest among those who voted for the Centre Party, the Greens, or the Christian Democrats in the municipal elections of 2008.
Uncertainty has grown especially among women and lower-ranking white-collar workers.
The greatest percentage of uncertain voters is among supporters of the Greens. Only 26 per cent of them are “very sure” of their choice. The corresponding figure among Left Alliance supporters is 55 per cent, with the National Coalition Party it is 50 per cent, 46 per cent for the Centre, and 40 per cent for the SDP.
There is also growing uncertainty among supporters of the True Finns. The proportion of “very certain” voters among them declined from 37 per cent in November to 29 per cent now.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 11.3.2010 - TODAY |
 Poll: Support rising for SDP |
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