site.btaOpinion Polls Demonstrate Modest Start of Newly-established DOST Party

Opinion Polls Demonstrate Modest Start of Newly-established  DOST Party

Sofia, April 11 (BTA) - A series of Gallup opinion polls conducted in January, February and March have established no tangible diffusion of the traditional negative attitudes towards the centrist Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The newly-established Democrats for Responsibility, Freedom and Tolerance (DOST) party of former MRF leader Lyutvi Mestan has a modest starting position, although a portion of the MRF supporters seem favourably disposed towards the new party. The recent impressions of Mestan as a conductor of foreign interests have found a good breeding ground, the polls showed.

Each of the surveys was conducted among 1,000 people and tested different claims.

A question in the January poll which asked whether Mestan's dismissal from the post of MRF leader in late December was good for Bulgaria was answered in the affirmative by 58 per cent of the respondents, while ten per cent of the interviewees had the opposite view.

Asked whether MRF honorary leader Ahmed Dogan defended the interests of Bulgaria, 15 per cent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, two thirds, in the negative, and the rest were don't knows.

The pollsters commented that proof of the hard-to-overcome negativism towards the MRF are the answers to the question asked in the February poll whether the MRF has become more acceptable with Mestan's ouster. Fourteen per cent of the respondents said this was so, while 60 per cent answered the opposite.

At the same time, nearly two thirds of the participants in the February poll said that Mestan defended Turkey's interests while 14 per cent held the opposite view.

The February poll tested the claim whether Dogan defended Russia's interests. Nearly half of the interviewees said they did not know, 15 per cent agreed with the claim, and close to 40 per cent disagreed.

The March survey contained a question for potential voting for the DOST party. Two per cent of the respondents, or of all that have a voting right, said they would vote for Mestan's party. A little over four per cent of the MRF supporters said they will vote for DOST.

The pollsters noted that DOST's electoral potential is solely within the ethnic aspect, with no discernible possibilities for a broader reach. This means DOST has a modest starting position but also a certain influence over MRF's electorate, the sociologists said.