Political preferences of ethnic Estonian, Russian speaking voters remain unchanged

TALLINN - The opposition Reform Party remains the most popular political force among Estonian-speaking citizens, support for the coalition Center Party is unchanged at approximately two thirds of the voters among non-ethnic Estonians, it appears from a survey commissioned by BNS and Postimees and carried out by pollster Kantar Emor at the start of January.

Voter support for the Reform Party stood at 28.4 percent among Estonian-speaking respondents, followed by the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) with 24.2 percent. Support for EKRE in said segment was at its highest in the past five months. The Center Party placed third in popularity with 12.9 percent. Support for the prime minister's party, however, exhibits a downward trend compared to December, having decreased by 3.2 percentage points.

Fourth in popularity among Estonian-speaking citizens was the Estonian Social Democratic Party (SDE) with 12.7 percent, followed by Pro Patria with 9.5 percent, and Estonia 200 with 6.1 percent. Estonian Greens garnered the support of 3.2 percent of the group, the Free Party 1.5 percent and the Biodiversity Party 0.6 percent. 

The first preference among non-ethnic Estonians was the Center Party, which was supported by 64.8 percent of the segment. Estonia 200 rose to second place in this group, garnering the support of 8.5 percent. The Reform Party came in third with 8.1 percent, followed by SDE with 7.8 percent, EKRE with 4.2 percent and Estonian Greens with 3.8 percent. Support for Pro Patria among non-ethnic Estonians totaled 1.9 percent and that for the Free Party 0.9 percent.

Among all respondents with a political preference, in January voter support for the Reform Party stood at 24.4 percent, for Center at 23.3 percent, EKRE at 20.2 percent, SDE at 11.8 percent, Pro Patria at 8 percent and Estonia 200 at 6.6 percent. Support for Estonian Greens totaled 3.3 percent, the Free Party 1.4 percent and the Biodiversity Party 0.5 percent.

The answers of the people who listed "no preference" as to party identification were eliminated from the outcome to make it as comparable as possible to the outcome of a parliamentary election. The share of people who said "no preference" was 21 percent in January. The margin of error is ±2.4 percent per 1,000 respondents.

Pollster Kantar Emor from January 4 to 8 polled altogether 1,340 citizens aged 18-84 by way of online interviews.