Polls and politics
Now that we have entered the final stretch of the pre-election period, the executive councils of the parties are gaining an increasingly clearer picture of voting trends and of the likely outcome of the March 7 elections, unless we are in for some big surprise in terms of the Pachtas amendment. Party officials are doubtless more accurate in their estimates than the ostensible experts of polling firms. As we can see from the statistics they publish in the press, opposition New Democracy leads PASOK by about three or four percentage points – a difference unlikely to change, as former PASOK supporters who have transferred their allegiance to ND made their decision a long time ago and therefore are little influenced by George Papandreou’s PR tactics. Moreover, most polls merely confirm the above – namely, that ND continues to gain popularity and that the proportion of voters shifting from one main party to the other is unlikely to change dramatically. Aware of this situation, party officials have started targeting specific groups. In particular, Papandreou has been trying to approach a section of undecided voters and convince them that a government led by him would make everything better. Meanwhile, various «analysts» have been appearing on televised debates, offering so many different interpretations of voter behavior that even the most credulous viewer would mistrust them…
