Election, parties

In November survey we questioned respondents about their participation in municipal elections to Local Councils and also we asked them whether they knew the candidates and whether they preferred candidates from political Parties or non – party candidates. More than two thirds of respondents told us that they participated in elections. The real election participation was 46, 38 %. This difference can be caused by the fact, that the public opinion research is made by personal interview, which means that a part of people who deny making a talk is unavailable for those surveys and there is also a fact, that people when talking about some subjects tend to talk in their own style which is not always the same as they really act.

In November survey CVVM investigated how people trust to political Parties and whether they are willing to take part in elections to Chamber of Deputies. In the press release there are two different types of information : Party preference and a model of voting behaviour.

Party preferences give us information about public sympathy with political Parties in the group of citizens who have voting right and there is also included a part of citizens who will not take part in elections or they do not knot who to vote for.

In October survey CVVM investigated how people trust to political Parties and whether they are willing to take part in elections to Chamber of Deputies. In the press release there are two different types of information : Party preference and a model of voting behaviour.

Party preferences give us information about public sympathy with political Parties in the group of citizens who have voting right and there is also included a part of citizens who will not take part in elections or they do not knot who to vote for.

In September survey CVVM investigated how people trust to political Parties and whether they are willing to take part in elections to Chamber of Deputies. In the press release there are two different types of information : Party preference and a model of voting behaviour.

Party preferences give us information about public sympathy with political Parties in the group of citizens who have voting right and there is also included a part of citizens who will not take part in elections or they do not knot who to vote for.

Press conference gave us information about first results of survey that was realized after the elections to the Chamber of Deputies by the Institute of Sociology of Academy of Sciences. Specialized academic post-election survey was never executed and results of other surveys were seldom put together by scientists.Post-election survey was focused on electoral behaviour, its stability and changes over time and its impact on formation of political representation.

Polled citizens arrogate a significant influence on voting decision-making to all inquired factors more often when judging their impact on other people than personally on themselves. Mass media, political beliefs and long-term biases to a political party are most often counted as influential factors on voting decision in case of other people. Political beliefs, pre-electoral party platforms and long-term biases to a political party are most often evaluated as important in case of personal voting decision of polled individuals.

47 % of polled citizens see platforms of political parties as quite different; two fifths (41 %) think that they are not much different. 38 % of Czechs accept the negative campaign bent on political rivals, 53 % disapprove such a campaign. Only one quarter of citizens thinks that newly elected MPs will represent interests of their voters properly. 50 % of respondents believed that the upcoming elections can make significant changes, 39 % expressed the opposite stance.

In May survey we asked respondents about their opinion of current election campaign. A half of respondents dislike current election campaign (answers I definitely dislike and I rather dislike), almost a third of respondents does not watch election campaign and 15 % of people said they like it. (answers I definitely like and I rather like).

Respondents also talked about their attitude to election campaign of some Parties.

In May survey we asked respondents some questions to investigate how they evaluate

current election campaign, whether they are interested in pre-elect situation and whether think that they are well informed about pre-election events.

Survey showed us that election campaign is watched by 40 % of people (answers :I definitely watch (7 %)+ I rather watch(33 %)); two thirds of respondents are not interested in it at all: 40 % of respondents told our questioners that they do not watch it (rather) and 20% of czech citizens said they do not watch (definitely) election campaign.

Three quarters of Czech citizens suppose public participation in June elections to Chamber of Deputies to be important, on contrary 17 % of respondents expressed their distrust to importance of electoral participation. Among most frequent arguments supporting importance of electoral participation there are suggestions that voting is a chance to express sb. opinion and public will and that elections will influence future political progress and development of society.