Most Citizens Believe that the Opposition Won

Trifun Kostovski, according to the poll, is the most suitable person to lead the temporary government, whose task would be to prepare the next elections

by G.B.

Dnevnik, Skopje, Macedonia, October 10, 2000

Coalition "For Macedonia-Together" won in the first round of the local elections, according to most of the polled citizens. The number of those who think that early parliamentary elections should be held is larger than the number of those who oppose the early elections, but the difference between the two groups is not very large. The SDSM would have the most support if the early elections were to be held soon. In case of a transition government, whose task would be to prepare and organize the elections, among three proposed candidates, Petar Gosev, Boris Stojmenov, and Trifun Kostovski, the citizens prefer the director of "Kometal" [Trifun Kostovski]. These are the results of the phone opinion poll conducted on 1,055 randomly chosen adults by the Institute for Democracy, Solidarity, and Civil Society (IDSCS) on September 25 and 26, 2000.

The results, exclusively published by Dnevnik, were compiled by the Institute for its internal needs, and the Institute also financed the poll.

Asked to assess the winner of the local elections, 20.9 % of respondents opted for the coalition "For changes" [ruling coalition], 61% for the coalition "For Macedonia-Together" [opposition], and 18.1 percent did not know.

The number of answers to the question whether early elections for the Parliament should be held was larger. 53.1% answered positively to this question, 39% negatively, and about 8 percent did not know or refused to answer the question.

More than a half of respondents supported the idea that a transitional government should be set up (51.4%). 36.3% opposed that idea, and about 12% did not answer.

In connection with this question, respondents were also given the choice of three persons whose names have appeared in the media as candidates for the leaders of the transition government.

23.6% supported Petar Gosev, but the number of those who opposed him as a leader of the transitional government is larger (52.7%). Boris Stojmenov received the support of 18.8% but as many as 69.4% respondents opposed that solution. Businessman Trifun Kostovski is the most acceptable for the citizens as a temporary Prime Minister. He got support of 35.1% of the respondents and only 15.6% were against.

If the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Macedonia were held soon, 17.6% of the respondents would vote for the VMRO-DPMNE [ruling party], 35.5% for the SDSM [main opposition party], 2.3% for the LDP, 2.1% for the DA [in the ruling coalition], 2.7% for the LP. The League for Democracy is the preferred choice of 0.1% of respondents, the CPM of 0.7%, the VMRO-VMRO of 0.6%, the DS of 1.3%. Regarding the parties representing ethnic Albanians, the PDP [opposition] would receive 4% and the DPA [in ruling coalition] 10.4% of votes. 13% of citizens cannot decide which party to vote for, and 9% refused to answer. Only 0.8% of respondents would vote for a party other than those mentioned above.

Translated on December 4, 2000