The majority of Slovaks (73.4 percent) truly trust the political parties that they support in elections, with only about 25 percent letting their choice at the ballot box be guided by the principle of a lesser evil, according to a survey conducted by Focus agency for DEKK Institute.
"A person voting for a 'lesser evil' thus supports the party that's closest to his or her opinions, but not close enough to identify with it," stated institute director Pavol Kosnac. In his view, what the given political party is fighting against is more important for voters than what it supports.
According to the survey, among the parties with highest levels of popular support are Smer-SD and Progressive Slovakia, followed by Hlas-SD, Republika, KDH, SaS, the Hungarian Alliance and Democrats, each of which commands enough support to make it past the 5-percent threshold into parliament.
The biggest proportion of 'lesser evil' voters were identified in the polls among supports of Democrats and SaS. "On the contrary, the parties that enjoy the greatest number of voters who support them out of conviction are Smer-SD and SNS," added Kosnac.
In comparison to Smer-SD, the runner-up Progressive Slovakia has twice as many voters who chose it as a 'lesser evil'.
The survey was carried out between September 17-26 on a sample of 1,017 respondents.
Source: TASR
