Prague, Dec 22 (CTK) – The ANO movement would win a general election in the Czech Republic with 29.7 percent of the vote, followed by the Social Democrats (CSSD) with 16.3 percent who have strengthened their position, according to a STEM election model conducted in December and released to CTK yesterday.
The CSSD, ANO and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) form the current centre-right coalition government.
The opposition Communists (KSCM) with 13.8 percent, the KDU-CSL (6.9 percent) and the right-wing opposition parties, the Civic Democrats (ODS) with 7.5 percent and TOP 09 (5.2 percent), would also enter the Chamber of Deputies. TOP 09 would only gain slightly over 5 percent necessary for entering the lower house.
The Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement of Tomio Okamura, founded in May 2015, would gain 4.7 percent and would not cross the parliamentary threshold, while the Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement would approach it with 4.1 percent.
Support for ANO has remained on the same level since the previous poll in October, carried out closely after the regional and Senate elections.
Support for the CSSD has increased by almost 2 percentage points, support for the KSCM has dropped by almost 1 percentage point, the ODS would lose 1.5 percentage point against October and the KDU-CSL would gain a bit more than in October when it was supported by 6,7 percent.
The Communists rely on its core voters to a high extent, the pollsters said.
Is seems that voters have started perceiving STAN, which was running together with TOP 09 in the past, as a solo party, and consequently TOP 09 stands on the verge of eligibility, the pollsters said.
STAN and TOP 09 agreed to terminate their cooperation agreement in November 2016.
Support for STAN has more than doubled since October, while TOP 09 would be elected by the same share of voters as two months ago. Support for the SPD has decreased from 5.2 percent in October.
The December election model counted with turnout of 54 percent.
Some 50 percent of respondents said they would take part in elections, while 26 percent would not and 24 percent were undecided.
If votes were translated into mandates, ANO would have 84 deputies in the 200-seat lower house, the CSSD 44 and the KDU-CSL 15 seats.
“The government coalition would win an unusually high number of 143 mandates. ANO and the CSSD would together also have a comfortable (three-fifth) constitutional majority,” STEM said.
The KSCM would have 34 MPs, the ODS 16 and TOP 09 seven.
The STEM poll was conducted on a sample of 1020 respondents over 18 from November 30-December. The statistical margin of error is 2 percentage points for small parties and 3 percentage points for big ones.
hol/dr/rtj
