Prague, Jan 28 (CTK) – Some 47 percent of the people who voted for academic Jiri Drahos in the weekend Czech presidential runoff did so mainly to prevent President Milos Zeman’s re-election, shows a poll conducted by the Kantar TNS agency for public Czech Television (CT) that released it today.
Only 52 percent of former Science Academy chairman Drahos’s voters had his becoming the president as the main goal.
Zeman defended his post for another five years, gaining 51.4 percent of the vote and beating Drahos (48.6 percent) in the runoff, the results of which were released on Saturday afternoon.
In the case of Zeman, 77 percent of his voters primarily wanted him to continue in the post, while the main motive of another 22 percent was to prevent Drahos from becoming head of state.
This poll results correspond to another Kantar TNS survey that shows 72 percent of Zeman’s voters decided for him and 52.5 percent of academic Jiri Drahos’s voters made up their mind before the first round.
After the first round and in the following week, 41.5 percent decided for Zeman and 20 percent for Drahos, while closely before the runoff, Zeman attracted 7.5 percent and Drahos 5.5 percent.
Zeman’s voters were the most influenced (45 percent) by the candidates’ TV duels in the week before the runoff. Besides, media information and the president’s opinions, conduct and experience with him had influence on them (40 percent).
Drahos’s voters were mainly influenced by media information (59 percent), TV discussions (34.5 percent) and his views and experience (31.5 percent). Social networks and recommendations by friends and family members had a stronger influence on them than on Zeman’s voters.
Recommendations by public personalities influenced both candidates’ voters the least, 2 percent in the case of Zeman’s supporters and 5.5 percent when it comes to Drahos’s voters.
According to pollster Pavel Ranocha, mainly Zeman’s voters in the Moravia-Silesia (north Moravia), Karlovy Vary (west Bohemia) and Usti (north Bohemia) regions helped him win. They contributed to the overall rise in turnout to the record 66.6 percent, compared to almost 62 percent in the first round.
Ranocha says Zeman was elected by four-fifths of supporters of the Communists (KSCM) and the anti-Eu and anti-immigration Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and, to a lower extent, by supporters of the government ANO who previously voted for the Social Democrats (CSSD).
The poll was conducted on 1060 respondents during the week before the election runoff, from January 21 to 25.