Labor Party leads pre-election polls

Oct 08, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

VILNIUS – A pre-election poll has indicated that Lithuania’s opposition Labor Party and Order and Justice Party are the most likely to win the upcoming parliamentary elections.

In the poll, which was conducted by the RAIT pollster from Sept. 5 -12, 10.5 percent of respondents said they would support the Labor Party and another 10.1 percent said they would vote for the Order and Justice Party.

About 21.1 percent of respondents said they would not vote in the elections.

Some 8.3 percent of those polled stated support to the opposition Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats. The ruling Social Democrats and the recently-established National Resurrection Party was supported by 5.7 percent and 4 percent of respondents, respectively.

Other parties were supported by less than 3 percent of those polled.

According to the survey 941 permanent residents of Lithuania, 39.9 percent of those planning to come to the polls were still undecided on the party to support and another 3.8 percent refused to specify the political force.

Though the part holds popular support, the Lithuanian gay and lesbian community has attacked the Order and Justice party over it’s purported lack of tolerance toward minority groups.

The gay and lesbian website www.gayline.lt said that the ruling Social Democrats were the most tolerant party on the list.

“This year we can clearly see the politicians who respect us, homosexual, bisexual and transsexual persons… Thanks to the Social Democrats, we were not crossed out of the Law on Equal Opportunities, and certain candidates of the party are politicians actively defending human rights,” the Web site said.

General parliamentary elections are due to take place on Oct. 12. A parallel referendum on the future of the Ignalina nuclear power plant is due to take place on the same day.

 

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