- Sputnik International
Russia
The latest news and stories from Russia. Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on defense, politics, economy and more.

Russian opposition leader says election polls misleading

Subscribe
MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of the Union of Right Forces (SPS), Nikita Belykh, said he expected parliamentary elections on December 2 to bring his party far more votes than opinion polls suggest.

Opinion pollsters have predicted that the SPS will receive about 3% of the vote at the State Duma elections. Under the new election laws, parties have to overcome a 7% barrier to make it into the lower house of parliament.

"On average, we garnered 8% at the [local] elections in March," Belykh told a news conference in Moscow on Monday. He added that opinion surveys held a week before the elections had also suggested that the SPS would only gather 2-3% of the vote.

The SPS took part in the weekend's anti-Putin demonstrations in Russia, with one of its top members, Boris Nemstov, briefly detained by police in St Petersburg on Sunday.

Opinion polls

Only one political party - the pro-Kremlin United Russia - will get enough votes to take seats in the State Duma, said Valery Fyodorov, the head of the government-backed VTsIOM pollster, citing a survey conducted on November 17-18.

He predicted that United Russia would win 55.6% of the vote. The other parties close to crossing the 7% margin are the Communists with 5.8%, the A Just Russia party with 4.9%, and the ultra-nationalist LDPR with 4.8%.

"The other parties will get around 1% or less," Fyodorov told a news conference in Moscow.

Pollster forecasts

Meanwhile, VTsIOM experts published their own forecasts on the December 2 elections on Monday, predicting that only four parties would overcome the 7% barrier - United Russia (62.1%), the Communists (12.2%), LDPR (8%), and A Just Russia (7%).

The remaining parties are predicted to receive less than 3% of the vote.

Turnout at Sunday's polls is expected to be around 54%.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала