The most popular political leader in Macedonia remains further to be Zoran Zaev, who with his 11.8% support of respondents is by far leading before the leader of the opposition Hristijan Mickoski (7%). Among the ethnic Albanian politicians, on the other hand, the “race” is somewhat tighter, although Ahmeti with 5.9% and Biljal Kasami with 4.4% are leading the “duet” in government, before oppositionist Zijadin Sela (4,1%) and Afrim Gashi (0.4%). The regular political barometer of the “Brima” Agency on the political views of the population in the Republic of North Macedonia ahead of the local elections, in general, shows the low ratings of the politicians, published “Sloboden Pecat”.
Overall, the survey shows the low ratings of the politicians. For example, for “leading” Zaev “very much in favour” and “somewhat in favour” was expressed by 13.6% and 17.8% of respondents, while “somewhat in favour” and “not in favour” was expressed by 18.7% and 46.9% of the respondents. In comparison, for Hristijan Mickoski, “very much in favour” was expressed by 8.3% and “somewhat in favour” by 15.8% of the respondents, while the combined score of “very much” and “somewhat” not in favour is over 71% of respondents. In the case of the Albanian leader that discrepancy is even bigger.
When it comes to the non-partisan function of President Pendarovski, the attitude for him is relatively balanced: 40% of the respondents expressed a certain degree of being in favour, as opposed to 56.5% not in favour. It is very similar to the combined score of Venko Filipce, for example, for whom almost 41% of the respondents were in favour.
Respondents were also asked “Which political party candidate would you vote for as mayor for your municipality at the upcoming elections?”, after which 19.8% said would vote for a SDSM candidate, 17.7% for a VMRO-DPMNE candidate, 7.5% for DUI, 5.6% for the Alliance for Albanians, 4.6% for the BESA Movement, 3.3% for Levica and so on. What is interesting is that at the moment, 2.4% have said they would vote for an independent candidate, and 8.8% that they would not vote. Still, about one quarter are in the category of “undecided”, that is, 13% say they are “indecisive”, 3.7% say “do not know”, and 7.4% explicitly “refuse to answer”.
As to the ethnicity, 52.2% of ethnic Macedonians “most probably” would vote, as opposed to 24.7% of ethnic Albanians and 45.7% of other nationalities.
Of those who have said they would “most probably” vote, the lowest percentage are in the Polog region (20,7%), and the highest in the Southeast region (70%). In the other regions these parameters range between 38%-56%.
If only respondents who at this moment have said they would “most probably” vote at the local elections are reviewed, 33% of them would vote for a SDSM candidate, 28.2% for a VMRO-DPMNE candidate, 4.5% for DUI, 2.8% for the Alliance of Albanians, 3.3% for the BESA Movement, 3.8% for Levica and so on. Currently, 2% of the respondents have said they would vote for an independent candidate and a smaller percentage for other parties.
Certainly, we should have in consideration that there is an election campaign ahead that nevertheless will influence the determination of voters to go to the polls and to give their vote for a certain option.
When data is compared on party ratings and voting potential of parties, with the election attitude for the upcoming local elections, it can freely be concluded (with little variations) that there is a high correlation between the party determination and the determination for whom they would vote for as a mayor of their municipality at the upcoming local elections. However, depending on the specific “offer” of the candidates, a change in the election determination at the upcoming local elections is possible.
The survey of the “Brima” Agency on the political views of the population ahead of the local elections in the country is a field research, conducted in the period August 27 to September 9 this year, on a national representative sample (the survey is conducted according to the face-to-face method, at the home of the respondent), in compliance to all demographic characteristics of the population 18 years and older, which includes 1,201 respondents. The results have an error margin of +/- 2,8%.
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
