Candidates of the ruling Smer party will be the most popular in May’s European Parliament elections, according to a recent pool. However, only one in four Slovaks would use the chance to vote for their candidates and people also know very little about the EP, according to a poll conducted by Polis agency for the SITA newswire found.
The poll, conducted via phone calls between February 16 and 22 on 1,868 respondents, implies that 50.5 percent of those who would come to the ballot boxes would chose Smer candidates; 12.9 percent Christian-Democratic Union’s (KDH)candidates; and 9.8 percent opting for Most-Híd candidates. As for other parties, Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) candidates would be picked by 8.2 percent; Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) by 7.3; Party of Hungarian Community (SMK) candidates by 4.5 percent, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) by 4 percent, the Communist Party (KSS) by 1 percent; NOVA by 0.7 percent and 1.1 percent would select candidates from other parties.
The preferences were calculated for a 25-percent turnout in the election, and 40 percent of respondents were still not decided whether they participate in the EP elections, while 35 percent said they would not come to the ballot boxes, SITA wrote.
The poll also showed a lack of knowledge about the EP elections, and ignorance about how many MEPs are elected: only 6.1 percent of those polled knew the right answer (13 MEPs), while 20.8 were close (saying 11 to 15 MEPs) 18.8 percent said 6 to 10 MEPs and 5 percent said 16 to 20 MEPs. A total of 17 percent were quite wrong about the numbers giving 1 to 5, or 20 and more MEPs; and 38.4 percent didn’t answer the question.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
