Slovak News Back to the news
IVO: Election Turnout Estimated to be 50-60 Percent
Friday 12 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 12 (TASR) - Voters turnout for June's parliamentary election could be 50-60 percent, according to a survey published by Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) on Friday.
In the past parliamentary elections in 2006, 54.7 percent of eligible voters exercised their franchise. According to the February's survey carried out by Focus agency, some 58 percent of voters plan to cast their votes in the upcoming election. In comparison to 2006, the ranks of people determined not to vote in June have risen from nine to 13 percent, said sociologist Olga Gyarfasova.
"We can't say that higher turnout will automatically benefit particular political parties, and lower turnout certain others," said Gyarfasova. She added that the success of individual political parties will depend, first and foremost, on how they will be able to mobilise their supporters, as the so-called swing vote could be both substantial and unpredictable.
IVO's survey established that the political parties can count on certain support of only one third of their sympathisers. Ethnic-Hungarian SMK and Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) enjoy the greatest number of loyal voters, whilst LS-HZDS, Slovak National Party (SNS) along with Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party have the fewest loyal voters.
According to Gyarfasova, SaS and Most-Hid parties draw their support mainly from first-time voters, with SaS set to get votes from former SDKU-DS and even Smer-SD voters. In June, Most-Hid will probably win over many votes of SMK.
On the rankings of the most trustworthy politicians, IVO's survey revealed that Slovak Premier and Smer-SD Chairman Robert Fico took the first place (31 percent), with his party colleague and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak a runner-up (16 percent). SDKU-DS election leader Iveta Radicova placed third on 14 percent, and Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic forth on 12 percent. Most-Hid Chairman Bela Bugar got into top five with 8 percent.
In comparison with the similar survey in 2006, Kalinak and Radicova made significant strides, while LS-HZDS Chairman Vladimir Meciar and SNS Chairman Jan Slota saw the biggest drops on the chart.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
