Eight out of 10 voters will vote the same way in the new elections

JUNE is the month for voting. Both the UK Brexit vote and the Spanish general elections will be taking place within a few days of each other. New research and polls have shown that eight out of 10 Spanish voters have indicated they will vote in exactly the same way as they did in the December elections.

The results of the survey carried out between January and March were published by the sociological research centre on Tuesday May 3, and indicate that it will be very difficult for any one party to achieve a significantly more resounding result than in December.  

It may be interesting to politicians to learn that despite these indicators on voter’s steadfast habits, the poll also showed that as many as 36 per cent of voters could be influenced by pre-election campaigning. This is a statistic that indicates that there could be plenty of votes up for grabs over the next few weeks.

A total of 16.9 per cent of voters confirmed that they found it difficult to decide between PP and Ciudadanos, and another 11.6 per cent were torn between PSOE and Podemos. Interestingly, fewer voters found their loyalties divided between the two parties to have actually come close to agreeing on a parliamentary pact in the short-lived 11th legislature between PSOE and Ciudadanos (9.6 per cent).

When it comes to political leaders in Spain, the political leader held in the highest esteem is Alberto Garzón of the IU party followed by Albert Rivera of Ciudadanos, with both Pedro Sánchcez of PSOE and Pablo Iglesias of Podemos both receiving higher scores than the current acting President Mariano Rajoy of the PP.