Throughout the ‘super election’ year 2002, the Public Opinion Research Centre investigated how voters’ decisions developed, with its September survey focusing, inter alia, on the coming Senate election. Almost a half (43%) of those who said they would definitely vote in the Senate election were decided about whom to support. The decision to vote in the Senate election was the most firm among those who would support the ODS and the KSCM in a potential election to the Chamber of Deputies.

The president is trusted by 45% and distrusted by 52% of citizens. The level of confidence in the president has dropped by 9 % points compared to July. The new government of Vladimír Špidla enjoys confidence of 48% and is not trusted by 46% of the respondents. The new Chamber of Deputies enjoys confidence of 32% (5% points more than the previous Chamber of Deputies) and is not trusted by 62% of the respondents.

Stanislav Gross still remains at the top of the chart (he enjoys confidence of 72% of the respondents), followed by ministers Tvrdík (59%) and prime minister Špidla (56%). Despite a significant drop, Petra Buzková is still favoured by slightly more than a half of the respondents (51%). In comparison with the results from April 2002 there has been a significant growth of public confidence in minister Tvrdík (+10% points) and prime minister Špidla (+7).

For the first time since the June election to the Chamber of Deputies, all respondents having the right to vote were asked an open question (i.e. without a list of political parties being used) investigating which party they would vote for if an election to the Chamber of Deputies took place the following week. The structure of the answers given is summarised in the table. The question ‘Imagine that an election to the Chamber of Deputies is held next week.

42% of citizens are satisfied with how democracy functions in the Czech Republic, whereas 46% expressed discontent. Only 1% of those polled believe that elections ensure ‘very good’ harmony between the stances of members of parliament and the opinions of their voters, whereas 22% think that elections ensure at least ‘partial harmony’, 41% hold the opinion that they ensure ‘little harmony’ and 17% ‘no harmony whatsoever’.

Shortly after this year’s parliamentary election, the Public Opinion Research Centre examined political activities of respondents in the pre-election period. The survey investigated, inter alia, whether people had attempted to persuade someone to vote for a certain party or candidate (14% of respondents did this at least sometimes) and whether they had expressed their support for a particular party or candidate by visiting a meeting, putting up posters etc (12% of respondents did this at least sometimes).

The planned election to the Chamber of Deputies became the major event of the first half of June. These events followed, keeping a considerable distance: validity of the Beneš decrees, conflict between Palestine and Israel, tension between India and Pakistan and the terrorist attacks on the USA. In late June and early July, the planned election to the Chamber of Deputies and the post-election situation were perceived as the most important major events, the significance of which can, from a long-term perspective, be compared with the reaction to the terrorist attacks on the USA.

The data collected clearly show that attitudes of the Czech public towards voting are deeply ambivalent. Those polled almost universally agree that participation in elections is a personal matter (88%) and that the possibility to vote is a right that must be exercised (83%) – in both instances, roughly a tenth of respondents disagreed with the statements. Slightly less consensus exists as to the statements that voting is not a duty but is necessary for society (72%), and that participation in elections is a civic duty (68%).

More than three fifths (61%) of those polled generally take a critical view of how parties behave, of which 41% generally dislike the behaviour of parties and 20% say that the situation makes them disgusted. On the other hand, 27% of respondents are critical of some parties only and only 1% expresses general satisfaction with how political parties behave. The performance of individual parties in the Chamber of Deputies is assessed as follows: the best evaluation is given to the CSSD – assessed favourably by over a half of respondents (54%).

In all the monitored countries (CZ, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania) supporters of capital punishment have a quite significant majority. On a relative basis, the highest number of them is in Romania (79%), on the other hand in Lithuania there is the smallest group of capital punishment opponents (15%). Slightly lower numbers of capital punishment supporters were recorded in Poland (74%) and Lithuania (73%).