22% and 13% would back former Science Academy head Jiri Drahos and businessman Michal Horacek, respectively. Photo: Zeman visiting Plzeň. Hrad.cz
Prague, Nov 7 (CTK) – Thirty-four percent of the Czechs who plan to take part in the January presidential election would vote for the incumbent President Milos Zeman, while 22 percent and 13 percent would back former Science Academy head Jiri Drahos and businessman Michal Horacek, respectively, a CVVM poll has shown.
The other candidates are each supported by a very small fraction of the electorate.
As many as one fifth of voters still do not know whom to support, according to the October poll.
Zeman’s voter preferences have increased by 3 percent as against September, and Drahos’s by 4 percent, while Horacek’s dropped by 1 percent.
A 2-percent support from those polled was won by Civic Democrat (ODS) senator Jaroslav Kubera, who, however, in the meantime decided not to seek presidency, and also by former Skoda Auto chief Vratislav Kulhanek.
One percent of the respondents who plan to vote named doctor and activist Marek Hilser as their favourite. Another one percent named Tomio Okamura, leader of the populist Freedom and Direct Democracy Movement (SPD), but Okamura announced earlier today that he would not run.
The support for all other candidates stands below one percent.
The October poll, nevertheless, does not include former ODS PM and now businessman Mirek Topolanek, who announced his decision to seek presidency this Sunday.
A total of 66 percent of the respondents said they want to take part in the election, one fourth said they would not do so and 9 percent are still undecided.
In the first direct presidential election in 2013, turnout in the first and the second round was 61.3 and 59.1 percent, respectively.
In the October poll, those polled were also asked to give individual candidates marks from 0 (the worst) to 10 (the best) according to their acceptability.
Like in September, the best average, 6.07, was achieved by Drahos. Zeman came second with 4.89, narrowly trailed by Horacek (4.88).
However, almost one third of the respondents did not assess Drahos’s acceptability because they either did not know Drahos or did not know how to assess him.
The share of the people who do not know Zeman is negligible, showed the poll, which was conducted on 934 people on October 9-19.
rtj/dr/kva
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