Poll: Presidential polls raise TOP 09's popularity

Prague, Jan 30 (CTK) - Voter support for the Czech government TOP 09 almost doubled during the January presidential election and reached 16 percent, according to an election model conducted by the CVVM polling centre and released to CTK yesterday.

Former Social Democrat prime minister Milos Zeman, 68, won the Saturday presidential runoff with 54.8 percent of the vote, having defeated Foreign Minister and government TOP 09 chairman Karel Schwarzenberg.

The CVVM poll also shows that the position of the senior opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) has improved. The CSSD, as the strongest political party, would receive 38 percent of the vote.

Support for the extra-parliamentary Party of Citizens' Rights (SPOZ), whose honorary chairman is President-Elect Zeman, has increased but it would still not cross the five-percent parliamentary threshold.

If elections were held now, the CSSD would be followed by the opposition Communists (KSCM) with 17.5 percent and TOP 09 (16 percent).

The senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) would finish fourth with 13 percent. This has been the ODS's worst result in the CVVV polls since the government of ODS chairman Petr Necas assumed office in mid-2010.

No other parties would enter the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament.

The Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), who are not represented in the lower house now, would gain merely 3.5 percent, the same as the SPOZ, and the extra-parliamentary Greens and the anti-Euroepean Sovereignty party would have 2 and 1 percent of the vote, respectively.

The CVVM poll was conduced on January 14-21, that is between the first and second round of the presidential polls.

The election model poll simulates the real division of votes in hypothetical elections, including only the voters who would go to elections and are decided whom they would vote for.

The statistical margin of error is 1.5 percent in the case of small parties and about 2.5 percent for big parties.