Election expectations of influentials

Conducted in: 2010

Our motivation for performing a “quick and dirty” pre-election research poll was the desire to map the opinions of the readers of the prestigious “Final Word” internet bulletin in terms of the expected developments after the May parliamentary elections and to compare the survey outcome with research already published by leading agencies operating on the Czech market. The “Final Word” is published in English by the Fleet Sheet (E.S. Best s.r.o.).

This research is different from other polls, mainly due to the professional composition of the respondents. Of those who responded (when independent consultants and entrepreneurs are included), 78% have middle and higher-level decision-making powers and considerable influence over their immediate environment. The state administration employs 11.4% of all respondents, the financial sector 16.9%, the corporate sector 33.1% and other areas 38.6%. In terms of the age distribution of respondents, 74.7% are older than 35.

For each of the questions, we compared the attitudes of all respondents with the attitudes of select subgroups. We divided them into “Young respondents” and “Experienced respondents” (under 35, 35 and over). For some questions, we then prepared a view of the group’s opinions defined by their attitudes to one of the other questions.

The survey focused primarily on the possible economic consequences of the election outcome, including the expected make-up of the post-election government coalition and the selection of the most suitable prime minister. The questioning took place from May 4 to May 7, 2010, using an electronic questioning system run by Donath-Burson-Marsteller. An e-mail invitation to participate in the research was sent to 6,512 “Final Word” readers. A total of 1,295 respondents, or 19.9% of those asked, participated.

Kontakt: Michal Donath