CRTA: If Poll Findings Were Unrealistic, Elections Would Have Been Held Long Ago

Rasa Nedeljkov (Beta/Media center)

Rasa Nedeljkov, program director of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), said on July 27 that reactions to the latest election poll showed that its findings were being interpreted not on the basis of its methodology, but through the prism of political interests.

“Part of the public does not see the next elections as just another political contest, but as a matter of life or death for the state and society. Had our findings been unrealistic, elections would have been held long ago,” Nedeljkov told the Nova daily.

He said that at the time the poll was conducted, the pro-European opposition had not confirmed that it would run as a coalition. “Opposition parties are, to some extent, collateral damage in a situation in which public trust in political parties is extremely low. The government has been imposing the view that engaging in politics is a dirty business for everyone except itself. The opposition is an integral part of the political system, but we have a hegemon that has been eating away at that system from within for 14 years. As institutions and mechanisms were being devoured, the opposition was the first target,” Nedeljkov said.

The CRTA poll showed that among the voters who had already made a political choice, accounting for around 70 percent of the electorate, 44.9 percent would vote for the Student Ticket in parliamentary elections, 35.7 percent for the Serbian Progressive Party and 3.8 percent for the Socialist Party of Serbia. The poll was conducted by CRTA and Stanford University’s Democracy Action Lab from June 10 to 24 through face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of 2,324  Serbian citizens of age. The full survey is available on CRTA’s website.