Unclear If Putin Has Support to Win in First Round – Polls
Recent polls suggest it’s unclear whether Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will be able to gather enough votes in the March 4 presidential election to avoid a second round.
One poll shows Mr. Putin short of the 50% of the vote that’s required to avoid a runoff, while a state-owned polling agency showed support for Russia’s most powerful politician rising in the last month, with over half the population ready to back him in a future presidential vote, despite widely criticized parliamentary elections and anti-government protests in December.
The poll by the Public Opinion Fund showed that 45% of voters would support Mr. Putin in elections were held immediately–a result that would necessitate a second round of elections were it to happen during the actual vote on March 4.
Yet data from the government-owned All Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, or Vtsiom, painted a rosier picture for Mr. Putin, with 52% of respondents saying he would get their vote. While Mr. Putin’s rating showed a seven point jump since late December, those of his opponents remained more or less constant. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov finished a distant second with 11% in the Vtsiom poll, one point above his late-December rating, while nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky took third place with 9%.
more:http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2012/01/20/unclear-if-putin-has-support-to-win-in-first-round-polls/?mod=google_news_blog
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