Party ratings: Centre pick up support, Reform down

The survey, commissioned by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (MTÜ Ühiskonnauuringute Instituut) and conducted by pollsters Norstat states that Reform currently stand on 36.1 percent of support, with Centre on 20.3 percent. The previous week’s figures were 37.4 percent and 19.2 percent respectively, Norstat says.

The Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE) has seen a very slight rise by 0.1 percentage points, to 15.7 percent, over the same period. SDE, the other opposition party along with Reform, has fallen from 10.4 percent to 9.6 percent over the same timeframe, though Isamaa has also seen a slight rise to 8.1 percent (from 8 percent).

Nevertheless support for the two opposition parties as a whole remains ahead of the three coalition parties combined, at 46.5 percent compared with 44 percent, according to Norstat.

Last week saw controversy breaking after interior minister Mart Helme (EKRE) attempted to unilaterally remove Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) chief Elmar Vaher from his post. Helme was overruled by Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Centre), who then met with President Kersti Kaljulaid early this week to discuss the implications of the stand-off, among other topics.

The Norstat poll surveyed 4,001 Estonian citizens of voting age via both phone and online, aggregated over the period Jul. 22 to Aug. 19, with theInstitute for the Study of Societal Issues component polling around 1,000 people each week.

The statistical error margin is reported at +/- 1.55 percent. Sample data is weighted according to a proportional distribution of eligible citizens based on key socio-demographic characteristics, the survey’s compilers say.

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