No. 23

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Changing Votes at the 2011 Riigikogu Elections

  • Mihkel Solvak

    Mihkel Solvak

    University of Tartu, Institute of Government and Politics, Researcher

In the article the author uses the data from the voter polling conducted by the Institute of Government and Politics of the University of Tartu in March 2011.

The poll enables to assess how the votes at the Riigikogu elections of 2011 were redistributed between the political parties in comparison to the elections of 2007, and who were the voters that did not remain faithful to the political party they had supported and changed sides. It turned out that those who voted for a political party both at the 2007 and 2011 elections formed 42.9 per cent of the sample. The rest had voted at one election but not at the other; had voted for minor political parties; could not remember for whom they had cast one of the two votes, or refused to answer. 66.2 per cent of the above-mentioned 42.9 per cent of voters remained faithful to their chosen political party. Thus at least 33.8 per cent of those who voted for a political party at both elections changed their preference. This proves how mistaken can an opinion that takes into account only the change in the total number of votes cast for political parties be. In Estonia, this actually covers a very changeable voting behaviour of voters, which means that our voter is not especially faithful to a political party and all political parties are able to win over the votes from other parties.

Full article in Estonian

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