"In deciding who to vote for, the most important sources of information were suggestions from friends, close ones and colleagues, as well as the parties’ performance in the pre-election debates," says the report titled What affected voters’ decisions in the 6 October 2018 parliamentary election?
The report is published by the Providus Center for Public Policy and coincides with a conference on similar themes being held in Rīga December 14.
That relatively ancient medium - television - has "continued to be the most influential form of media for voters – 76% of voters received political information prior to the election from one or more television channels," the report says.
However, the influence of television has decreased – younger citizens watch television rarely, getting news from the internet instead. The post-election survey showed that Latvian citizens generally trust the work of the media.
The report is based upon data from a survey sample of 854 Latvian citizens, conducted by the SKDS pollster and goes into detail on a wide number of election-related topics. You can read the full research in the attachment included with this story.
Among the more eye-catching findings, 69% of Latvian citizens agree with the statement that the ruling powers in Latvia are corrupt and 37% of Latvian citizens consider that Latvia’s future is under threat.
Only 18% of Latvian citizens considered that there was a lot of misinformation about candidates during the election campaign period which they did not believe, despite frequent fears before campaigning got underway that it would be a very dirty campaign.