Finnish Voter Barometer March-April 2005

The survey studied Finnish political attitudes, and opinions on political parties. Respondents were asked how favourable their opinion was regarding the Finnish Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party of Finland, the National Coalition Party, the Left Alliance and the Green League and how tempted respondents would be to vote for these parties. A number of attributes (e.g. incompetent leaders, competence in EU issues) were listed and respondents were asked to which party they could be applied. They also assessed government performance. Voting behaviour was studied by asking how tempted they would be to vote for different parties if the Parliamentary elections were held at the time of the survey and which party did they vote for in the 2004 local government elections. Respondents' attitude to lowering voting age from 18 to 16 and the cooperation between non-socialist parties during the second round of presidential elections was studied. Background variables included respondent's year of birth, gender, marital status, household composition, household's annual gross income, type of accommodation, housing tenure, age when finished studying full-time, basic and vocational education, occupational group, industry of employment, employer type, trade union membership, political orientation on the left-right axis, self-perceived social class, and province, county and municipality of residence.