Only 10% of Russian voters changed their preferences during election campaign. Most of them ended up voting M.Prokhorov.
MOSCOW, March 29, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing how Russian voters` decision-making was changing during election campaign.
Every tenth Russian changed his/her voting decision during presidential election campaign (10%). The firmest voters were supporters of V.Zhirinovsky (only 5% recognized that they were planning to vote for another candidate in the beginning). On the contrary, the most effective campaign to attract new followers was the campaign of M.Prokhorov: 36% of those who voted for him were originally planning to vote for another candidate.
As to V.Putin, only 8% of his electorate recognized that they decided to do so during election campaign and they were not going to vote for him in the beginning. Given that the total number of voters who cast their vote for Putin was more than half of all Russians, Putin attracted much more new followers than any other rival.
What was behind the voters` decision to change their minds? More than two-thirds of those who originally wanted to vote for Zyuganov supported Putin on March 4th (68%). The remainder mainly voted for Prokhorov (14%).
Most of those who wanted to vote for Mironov changed their decision and cast their ballot for Putin (61%) and Prokhorov (22%).
Those who were planning to vote for Zhirinovsky were equally divided: half of them voted for Prokhorov and half – for Putin (33% for each). Other 20% supported Zyuganov.
Those who wanted to vote for Putin ended up voting for Prokhorov (45%) and Zyuganov (32%).
Prokhorov was also supported by those Russians who were planning to vote for candidates who failed to take part in presidential race such as Yavlinsky, Mezentsev and others (58%). However, one–quarter of respondents in this group voted for Putin (25%).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted March 10-11, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
Did you change your preferences during presidential election campaign? (close-ended question , one answer, % of those who took part in the voting) | ||||||
| Total | Voted for Prokhorov | Voted for Mironov | Voted for Zyuganov | Voted for Putin | Voted for Zhirinovsky |
Yes | 10 | 36 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 5 |
No | 88 | 60 | 86 | 89 | 91 | 91 |
Hard to tell | 2 | 4 |
| 1 | 1 | 4 |
Did you participate in the 2012 presidential elections? If yes, who did you vote for? | |||||||
Who did you want to vote for in the beginning (before you changed your decision)? | |||||||
Planned to vote for Zhirinovsky | Planned to vote for Zyuganov | Planned to vote for Mironov | Planned to vote for Prokhorov | Planned to vote for Putin | Other (Yavlinsky, Mezentsev et cet.) | I do not remember | |
Voted for Zhirinovsky | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
Voted for Zyuganov | 20 | 0 | 17 | 18 | 32 | 8 | 14 |
Voted for Mironov | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 5 |
Voted for Prokhorov | 33 | 14 | 22 | 0 | 45 | 58 | 5 |
Voted for Putin | 33 | 68 | 61 | 77 | 0 | 25 | 55 |
I spoiled the ballot, threw it out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
I do not remember | 13 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!