A new poll has seen more respondents say they would vote for Independents than for any of the political parties, including Sinn Féin, 4 weeks ahead of the local and EU elections on June 7th.
The results of the latest poll for The Journal and Ireland Thinks show 24% of people plan to vote for candidates classed as ‘independents and others’ on 7 June – up 9 percentage points from the 15% recorded last month.
Sinn Féin is the next most popular choice, with 22% of respondents saying they would vote for the party, down slightly from 23% in the last poll.
Fianna Fáíl and Fine Gael were both down one percentage point, while Labour remains in low single digits at 3%. The poll showed polling results for the parties as follows:
The parties classed as ‘other’ include Independent Ireland, Rabharta, the Irish Freedom Party, Ireland First, and The Irish People.
The poll also found that the “vast majority of people who participated in the opinion poll said they plan on voting in the European elections with 85% saying they are ‘very likely’ to vote next month”.
Some 1,633 people took part in the poll between 2 and 7 May, and there is a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4%, the Journal reported.
The poll was co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament.