Poll: support falls for several Latvian parties in post-election slump

Take note – story published 5 years ago

Since the Saeima elections on October 6, support has fallen for a number of political parties, according to the latest opinion poll conducted by the SKDS pollster for Latvian Television. The poll was conducted from 3 to 15 November, when the New Conservative Party's (JKP) Jānis Bordāns was still in line to become the likely new prime minister - a situation that no longer holds true.

According to the data support for JKP has remained almost unchanged, while popularity has fallen for the center-right For Development/For! alliance and for the right of center nationalist National Association. 

Support for the populist KPV LV party declined, even before the nomination of the party's Aldis Gobzems as the next potential prime minister. As previously reported, Gobzems' attempts to form a coalition continue, though they too seem to have hit choppy waters and there s no guarantee he will be successful.

Conversely, the Greens and Farmers Union of outgoing PM Māris Kučinskis picked up support, as did the New Unity party that saw its number of parliamentary seats shrink dramatically in the election.

The largest support is still held by the Saskaņa (Harmony) party - the one party with which no other party seems willing to work and which President Raimonds Vējonis has studiously ignored in his invitations to form a government.

However, as is frequently the case with such polls in Latvia, a large number of people say they either don't know who to support or would have no intention of voting in any election. Adding these two attitudes together accounts for a third of the electorate.

Arnis Kaktiņš, head of SKDS, said it suggested the interest in politics generated by elections campaigning had evaporated to some extent "The big thing is that we see it returns the way things looked before the election. We have quite a significant increase the proportion of people who no longer have a point of view, who look at everything, are confused and say: "I do not know who I could vote for from all these parties."

The data was based on 830 respondents in all regions of Latvia.

Meanwhile, Gobzems' attempts to attract support continue, though little of no progress seems to have been made over the weekend.

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