New poll puts Akel as most popular party

Akel is currently the most popular party, followed by Disy and then nationalists Elam in third place, a new opinion poll has found.

The survey, conducted by IMR on behalf of the Reporter news website, showed a considerable increase for Elam – with 12 per cent of respondents saying they’d vote for the party were parliamentary elections to be held right now.

That placed the far-right nationalist party in third place, behind Akel at 20 per cent and Disy at 18 per cent.

In the presidential elections earlier this year, Elam’s candidate Christos Christou garnered 6.04 per cent of the popular vote.

According to the poll, Diko has dropped to fourth place at 7 per cent. There followed the Greens at 4 per cent, Edek at 2 per cent, and Dipa at 1 per cent.

The poll – the first in a rolling survey to be updated periodically until the 2024 municipal elections – also showed Disy’s Annita Demetriou as the most popular party leader. She got the highest overall favourable ratings and the lowest negative ratings – 66 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

In addition, Demetriou’s popularity among those identifying as Disy supporters stood at 82 per cent. The baseline used for this metric are the results of the 2021 parliamentary elections.

Next was Akel’s leader Stefanos Stefanou, with 52 per cent positive ratings and 40 per cent negative ratings. Among Akel supporters alone, his positive ratings go up to 86 per cent.

The Greens’ Charalambos Theopemptou got 47 per cent positive ratings and 35 per cent negative ratings.

Meanwhile the popularity Diko’s Nicholas Papadopoulos dipped further – just 32 per cent positive and 63 per cent negative. And among Diko supporters, his positive ratings registered at just 71 per cent.

Even Elam leader Christou fared better than Papadopoulos. Christou’s positive ratings clocked at 35 per cent, the negative ratings at 59 per cent. Among Elam supporters exclusively, his popularity was at 87 per cent.

Asked which party “has a future and prospects,” 34 per cent of respondents picked Disy, and 17 per cent said Elam.

The phone survey was conducted from September 18 to September 22, with a sample of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and over.

Thirty-nine per cent of the sample came from the Nicosia district, 29 per cent from Limassol, 16 per cent from Larnaca, 10 per cent from Paphos, and 6 per cent from Famagusta district.