Van der Bellen could avoid run-off in presidential election as still strong favourite: poll
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Loading... - Freja Jensen
- 19 Sep 2022
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Van der Bellen can count on 59 percent of the vote, according to a poll carried out by Unique Research for news magazine Profil and daily Heute.
That’s less than the last survey conducted in August, but it still gives the 78-year-old a strong lead, well ahead of his closest opponents Walter Rosenkranz (13 percent), who is affiliated with the right-wing FPÖ party, and Gerald Grosz, formerly FPÖ/BZÖ (9 percent).
The poll was conducted by telephone and online between September 7th and 15th, 2022.
First of all, 1,600 Austrians over the age of 16 were asked how likely they were to go and vote on election day – October 9th.
62 percent said they would definitely vote and these 993 people were then also asked the ‘Sunday question’: if the presidential election were to take place next Sunday, who would you vote for?
According to the poll, 59 percent of those asked said they would vote for Van der Bellen, who used to head up the Austrian Green Party but suspended his membership in 2016 during his previous candidacy for the presidential election.
A comparable Unique Research poll from August put the figure at 66 percent.
However, this decline was to be expected as “the rest of the field of competitors was still unclear” in August, according to opinion pollster Peter Hajek, Austrian news agency APA reported.
‘Run-off unlikely’
On the basis of the survey, Hajek said that Van der Bellen had “all the trump cards”, explaining that his electorate was “very well mobilised” and sure they will vote for Van der Bellen, which was not the case with his competitors.
Furthermore, Van der Bellen should be able to build on broad support from the centre-left SPÖ, the centre-right ÖVP, the Green and liberal Neos electorates, he said. Read More...
