Poll: Czech PM's ANO party leads ahead of October elections

The ANO party led by Czech PM Andrej Babiš would win the general election with 32.4 percent of the vote if elections were held today, a STEM public opinion poll released by CNN Prima News has shown.

The opposition coalition Together would follow with 20 percent of the vote, and the Pirates/STAN coalition would come in third with 18 percent, according to the latest poll. The Czech general election will be held in October.

The junior government Social Democrats, meanwhile, would fail to re-enter the Chamber of Deputies with less than five percent of the vote, according to the poll conducted in early September.

Compared with the previous STEM poll conducted in August, ANO has widened its lead over the two alliances challenging it in the election.

Recent public opinion polls from other agencies also show ANO as the clear front-runner, followed by Together as the runner-up and Pirates/STAN in the third position. Together is a coalition made up of the Czech parties Civil Democrats, Christian Democrats, and TOP 09.

The senior government ANO party has seen its position as the front-runner strengthening. In STEM's August poll, it had 31 percent of the vote, compared with Together's 22 and Pirates/STAN's 19.

In a STEM poll from the end of June, ANO tallied only 27 percent, while the Pirates/STAN were second with 24 percent. In an April poll, the Pirates/STAN coalition came in first with 27.9 percent of the vote.

Like ANO, the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party has seen a rise since early August, from 11.2 percent to 11.8. The popularity of the Communist party, meanwhile, has dropped from 5.8 percent to 5.4 in the latest poll.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they have already decided on which party to vote for in the upcoming elections. One third of respondents said they are still uncertain if they would vote in the elections, and which party they would support. Eleven percent of respondents said they definitely would not take part in the elections.

STEM conducted the poll on 1,014 people from August 31 to September 8.