Center Party becomes the most popular party in Estonia

TALLINN – Estonian Center Party became the most popular party in Estonia in January, being supported by 28 percent of voting age citizens, a poll by TNS Emor, commissioned by the Public Broadcasting, indicates.

The opposition's Center Party was the only one that managed to increase its support rating in a month, by 4 percentage points.

If parliament elections took place tomorrow, 27 percent of respondents would vote for the other opposition party, Estonian Social Democratic Party. Their support fell by 1 percentage point in a month.

The governing Reform Party, which had held the top position in the party ratings for a long time, being as high as 39 percent in August last year, saw its support fall by 2 percentage points to 20 percent in January. The support to the junior coalition member, Pro Patria and Res Publica Party (PRU) also fell by 2 percentage points to 16 percent.

Emor said that the support between coalition parties that had a combined 36 percent support and opposition parties that had combined support of 55 percent hasn’t been as big since elections of 2007.

Among parties not represented in the parliament, the Greens had the highest support, 5 percent.

TNS Emor polled 8,997 citizens in voting age. Emor's party support rating includes the responses of people who had a party preference and thus the answers of people whose response was "cannot say" were eliminated. The share of people without a party preference was 38 percent in January.