TABLE-Czech left narrows gap behind right-wing

    The Czech leftist opposition 
Social Democrats narrowed a gap behind the ruling right-wing 
Civic Democrats, a poll showed on Thursday. 
    The poll, by the private agency STEM, was conducted between 
Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 among 1,222 Czechs. 
    It gave the Civic Democrats 31.3 percent of the vote, down 
from 32.3 a month ago, while the Social Democrats polled 23.4 
percent, up from 20.9 percent. 
    The Civic Democrats formed a cabinet with the centrist 
Christian Democrats and the Green Party last month, more than 
seven months after election last June, and won a parliamentary 
vote of confidence on Jan. 19. 
    But the coalition holds just 100 seats in the lower house 
and barely squeezed through the confidence vote thanks to the 
abstention of two rebel leftist deputies which gave it a 
majority of deputies present. 
    The poll results, including undecided and non-voting 
respondents, showed the coalition would now win 49.2 percent of 
the vote versus a total of 36.1 percent for the opposition 
Social Democrats and the Communists. 
    Under a model excluding the undecided, non-voting 
respondents and taking into account past voter behaviour and 
other factors, the Civic Democrats would win 78 seats, the 
Christian Democrats 14 seats and the Green Party 21 seats, 
giving the coalition 113 seats versus 87 seats for the 
opposition, STEM said. 
     
 DATE    INSTITUTE   ODS    CSSD   KSCM   KDU-CSL  Greens 
 Feb 15    STEM      31.3   23.4   12.7    7.6      10.3 
 Feb 1     CVVM      37.0   24.5   16.0    8.0      11.5 
 Jan 26    FI        36.5   29.5   14.1    7.3       7.6 
 Jan 16    STEM      32.3   20.9   12.4    7.5      11.1 
 Dec 20    CVVM      38.0   23.5   11.5   11.0      12.0 
 Dec 15    STEM      32.9   20.6   13.1    7.0      11.2 
 Dec 07    FI        35.8   30.9   14.3    6.6       7.2 
 Nov 23    CVVM      41.0   26.0   11.0    7.0      11.0 
 Nov 15    STEM      35.1   20.7   10.9    7.5       9.4 
 Nov 10    FI        41.1   27.7   12.7    6.0       7.1 
 Oct 23    CVVM      36.0   30.5   15.0    6.0       9.5 
 Oct 16    FI        35.9   27.2   13.9    6.9       8.4 
 Oct 15    STEM      32.0   22.7   11.7    6.3      10.5 
 Sept 22   CVVM      37.0   29.5   13.0    8.0      10.0 
 Sept 21   STEM      32.8   26.6   10.0    4.2      10.3 
 Sept 18   FI        36.3   32.0   13.7    6.5       7.3 
 Aug 7     FI        41.0   30.8   12.3    6.3       6.9 
---------------------------------------------------------------- 
June 2-3 election    35.4   32.3   12.8    7.2       6.3 
  
 NOTE. The parties are: 
 - Civic Democratic Party (ODS) - right wing, 
liberal-conservative 
 - The Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) - leftist 
 - Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party 
(KDU-CSL) - centrist 
 - The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) - far left 
 - The Greens - environmentalists, centrist. 
   Pollsters: The FI and CVVM results are based on a model 
predicting gains at the poll box, excluding those not willing to 
vote and undecided. 
   STEM results are direct voter preferences, and include 
replies from all respondents including those not willing to 
vote. Parties should thus win a larger than indicated share of 
the vote at the election. 
 

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]