Nov 10 Poll: Czech Communists (KSCM) gain in support: Social Dems and Civic Dems slipping, ČTK , 19 November 2009

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Source: Prague Monitor


Prague, Nov 18 (CTK) - Preferences of the two strongest Czech political parties, the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Civic Democrats (ODS), are falling, according to a November poll the STEM agency has released to CTK.

The CSSD is now supported by 25.4 percent of people, which is 1 percentage point less than in October, and the ODS is supported by 23.3 percent, 2 percentage points less than in October.

"The Communists (KSCM) have relatively strong preferences at the time of the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution," STEM analysts said.

According to its poll, 12.3 percent of people preferred the Communists in November.

The new conservative TOP 09 party is supported by 8.4 percent of people, the Christian Democrats by 5.1 percent, and the Green Party (SZ) by 3.5 percent.

All other political parties jointly received preferences of 6.6 percent of respondents, while 7.1 percent said they did not know what party they would vote for and over 6 percent said they would not vote for any party.

The preferences are calculated with the inclusion of undecided voters and people who said they would not vote for any party.

This means that the parties' actual election results would be better, STEM said.

According to STEM, the CSSD would gain 72 seats in the 200-member Chamber of Deputies, if elections were held in November. The ODS would gain 69 seats, the KSCM 31, TOP 09 would gain 18 and the KSCM 10.

"Given the current distribution of voter support it would be possible to form a stable grand coalition (ODS-CSSD) government. The CSSD and the KSCM would also be able to form a government that would enjoy the narrow support of 103 deputies in the lower house," the poll authors said.

According to the poll, 50 percent of Czechs would attend the elections in November, 18 percent clearly said they would not go to the polls and 32 percent were undecided.

The poll was conducted on 1300 adult voters on October 31 - November 9. The statistical margin of error is about 1.5 percent in small parties and about 2.5 percent in big parties.