Harmony support dips in May but still ahead of other parties

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The opposition "Harmony" party saw its support among voters dip appreciably in May, but it remains comfortably the most popular party, according to the monthly data produced by the SKDS polling company. 

In May Harmony received 17.5% voter support after losing 2.2% support on the month when 1,000 voters were asked who they would support if Saeima elections took place now. 

Surprisingly the second placed party was the Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS), which had 8.8% support in May, third place was held by the National Alliance, with 8.6% of the voters. Both of these parties picked up nearly 2 percentage points.

Fourth place was held by the New Conservative Party with 7.9% voter support, followed by New Unity on 6.1% and Development/For! on 5.9%. 

No other political forces made it above the 5% threshold.

However the figures are notably at odds with the results of the recent European parliamentary elections in several important respects. In those elections, New Unity was the top party and neither ZZS nor the New Conservatives managed to attract enough support to win a seat.

As is common with Latvian politics, it appears to be the large number of undecided and uncommitted voters who hold the key to the difference between polls and election results. In May 18.4% of those polled said they would not bother to participate in Saeima elections and a further 16.9% said they were undecided about which party to support.

Almost 17% of voters did not decide what to vote for, but almost one in five said that they would not participate in the Saeima elections, if they were to happen now.

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