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Jaunākie partiju reitingi Rīgā

Party ratings suggest plenty to fight for in Rīga municipal elections

Take note – story published 3 years ago

With important municipal elections looming in the Latvian capital, Rīga, on August 29, the latest party ratings from the SKDS pollster for Latvian Television published August 3 suggest there are still plenty of floating voters for politicians to recruit to their causes.

Asked for whom they would vote if elections took place tomorrow, Rīga voters showed biggest support for the For Development/For!/Progressives party list (14.9%), followed by the Harmony party (14.1%).

The National Alliance/Latvian Regional Alliance list is in third spot (7.7%), followed by New Unity (5.9%), Honor to serve Riga (5.6%), the New Conservative Party (4.5%), Latvian Russian Union (3.6%), Greens and Farmers Union (3.5%), New Harmony (3.4%) and KPV (1.5%). 

SKDS conducted the survey from July 24 to 28, addressing 1,008 residents of Riga.

However, the intentions of many voters remain vague. 4.7% of respondents said they will participate in the elections, but will not vote - a confusing claim which suggests they will at best record a spoiled ballot paper. Meanwhile 26.1% are of the opinion that it is difficult to say whether they will participate or not. 55.3% of respondents expressed a clear desire to go to the polls, while 27.2% indicated that they would probably go to the polls. In turn, 7.5% said they were unlikely to go to the polls.

Political scientist Jānis Ikstens told LTV program "Panorama" that the latest ratings are very surprising, as they show that Harmony has lost about a third of its voters at a time when nothing dramatic concerning this political force has happened. It is possible that the ratings were affected by the appearance of the little-known "New Harmony" in the survey, but even this cannot entirely explain by the sharp drop in Harmony's rating, he suggested.

SKDS head, sociologist Arnis Kaktins agreed. "We see that New Harmony has eaten some of the bread of the old Harmony, but it is not the only problem," Kaktins said, noting that there is some embarrassment among the Russian-speaking voters who traditionally form the core of Harmony's support, about the state of "old Harmony" in Riga. 

 

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