The survey, conducted from 18–28 March this year, shows that 12.7% of voters expressed support for the Social Democrats in March and 12.3% in February.
The Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), led by former Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasčiūnas, came second in the rankings, with 12.5% of respondents. A month earlier, 11% of the population supported this political force.
The Social Democrats' partners, the Democratic Union Vardan Lietuvos (In the Name of Lithuania) and Nemuno Aušra (Dawn of Nemunas), were in third and fourth place. Support for the Democrats, led by Saulius Skvernelis, and for the Dawn-Breakers, led by Remigijus Žemaitaitis, has dropped slightly in the last month, with the Democrats being supported by 7.7% (8.7% in February), and the Dawn by 7.1% (8.9% in February).
The results of the other parties in the ranking table did not change substantially. The Peasants, led by Aurelijus Veryga, would be supported by 7% of respondents in the next elections (6.8% in February).
In March, 6.7% of respondents (6.5% in February) supported the Liberal Movement, which was in sixth position.
The Freedom Party, which did not enter the Seimas last autumn, would be supported by 3.6% of the electorate in the next elections (3% in February), while the National Alliance would receive 2.2% (1.7% in February).
At the same time, other political parties polled less than 2% of the vote.
According to the poll, 10.2% of respondents would not vote in the next elections, while those who do not know who to vote for or who did not respond account for about one-fifth—21.1%.
The most suitable heads of government are Paluckas, Šimonytė and Skvernelis
In March, compared to February, there was a slight increase in the number of respondents who said that the most suitable person to take over the post of Prime Minister was the current Social Democrat Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas. In March, 14.5% (12.4% in February) held this opinion.
When choosing the most suitable politician for this position, 10.8% of respondents named former Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, a Conservative. In February, 10.6% of respondents supported her.
The third place was occupied by the current Speaker of the Seimas, the Democrat Saulius Skvernelis, who received fewer supporters. In March, 6.3% of respondents supported him, compared to 7.5% in February.
The fourth place in the ranking table goes to Žemaitaitis. Support for this politician has slightly decreased from 6.6% in February to 5.3% in March.
The liberal Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen rounds off the top five. In March, 4.1% of respondents said she would be the most suitable politician to take over the post of Prime Minister, compared to 4.9% in February.
Kasčiūnas (3.5%), Veryga (3.3%), Virginijus Sinkevičius (2.6%), who has returned to the post of mayor of Jonava, Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis (2.1%), and MEP Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis (1.4%).
The performance of the Cabinet of Ministers is assessed negatively
Regarding the performance of the Government headed by Paluckas, the population remains primarily critical. In March, 21.8% of respondents stated that they had an unfavourable opinion of the Cabinet of Ministers, while 32.7% – rather negative. In February, 21.8% and 32.7% of the population had a negative view of the Government's performance.
At the same time, 4.1% of the respondents had a favourable opinion of the Cabinet of Ministers in March (compared to 3.2% in February), while 26.4% had a relatively positive opinion of the Cabinet of Ministers (compared to 30.2% in February).
Another 15% of the respondents said they did not know how to evaluate the Government or did not answer the question.
The public opinion poll was conducted by the public opinion and market research company Spinter Research on behalf of the news portal Delfi from March 18 to 128 this year.
1 012 people aged between 18 and 75 took part in the poll.
The margin of error of the survey results is 3.1%.