Poll: slight decline in support for Centre and National Coalition parties
Opposition SDP unchanged from election
|
|
The main government parties, the National Coalition Party, and the Centre are in a dead heat in the competition for public opinion, according to a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, both partes have slightly lost ground since the previous poll.
The gap between the two parties and the opposition Social Democrats has narrowed.
The poll, published on Saturday, gives the conservative National Coalition Party 22.6 per cent support, with the Centre getting 22.5, with the SDP getting 21.5 per cent.
Support for both the Centre and the National Coalition had declined by about one half of a percentage point from the previous poll, taken in June.
The changes fit within the margin of error, which is about two percentage points in both directions in the case of the larger parties.
The recent controversies over comments made by Minister of Defence Kari Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) and allegations of reneging on promises of wage increases for nurses appear to have had only a small impact on support of the National Coalition Party.
At the same time, the largest opposition party, the SDP, has not managed to gain any ground since the Parliamentary elections in March.
The right-wing populist True Finns, Finland's sixth-largest party, is still the only opposition group to to score better in the latest poll than in the March Parliamentary elections.
Of the small government partes, the Greens have maintained their support at nine per cent. Support for the Swedish People's Party is at exactly the same level where it was in the election - 4.6 per cent.
Supporters of the National Coalition Party were the most certain of their sentiments, with 48 per cent saying that they were completely sure of their choice, while supporters of the Greens were least certain: only 27 per cent.
Certainty of party choice has declined since June among supporters of the Greens, the Centre, and the Social Democrats.
Only among supporters of the Left Alliance has the proportion of those who are completely sure of their choice grown since the previous election.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 24.9.2007 - TODAY |
 Poll: slight decline in support for Centre and National Coalition parties |
|
