Growth in popular support for the main government parties, the Centre Party and the Social Democrats, has come to a halt. The latest opinion poll, commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, also reveals that the downward slide of the opposition National Coalition Party has continued since December.

   

The SDP remains the most popular party with exactly 26% support, down slightly from 26.2% in December. Coming in second is the Centre Party, with 24.2%, down from 24.5% in December.

   

The changes in support could easily fit within the margin of error.

The greatest decline was with the National Coalition Party, which lost more than a full percentage point, dropping from 18.5% in December to 17.4% in February and March this year. The last time that the party had such low figures was in February 1995, towards the end of the tenure of a centre-right government.

   

During the time that the poll was taken, the National Coalition Party's embattled chairman Ville Itälä had just suffered a defeat, after when he tried to push the chairman of the party's Parliamentary group, Ben Zyskowicz, out of that post.

   

This defeat proved to be a serious embarrassment, and Itälä finally announced that he would not seek re-election at the party's congress in June.

All of Finland's small parties seem to have increased their support somewhat, although the changes fit within the margin of error. The Christian Democratic Party is the exception: it has managed to increase its popular support in just a couple of months by 0.7 percentage points, from 4.2% to 4.9%. This restores the opposition Christian Democrats to the position of Finland's sixth largest party, putting it slightly above the junior government partner, the Swedish People's Party.

   

Not only has the National Coalition Party lost support, an increasing number of respondents who gave their support to the party are nevertheless less certain about their conviction than before. In December's poll 45% of those who backed the National Coalition Party said that they were absolutely certain about their choice; in the latest poll, the figure is just 41%.

   

Meanwhile, certainty increased among supporters of the Social Democratic Party, the Centre, and the Left Alliance.

Voters who are most certain of their choice include supporters of the Left Alliance (9.6% popular support, 54% of whom are absolutely sure), and the most uncertain were supporters of the Green League (9.4% popular support, 25% of whom are absolutely sure).

   

The HS Gallup involved telephone interviews with 2,383 Finns of voting age in mainland Finland, between February 3rd and March 5th.

   

The margin of error with the larger parties is two percentage points in either direction.