Even those who voted Yes in last week’s Lisbon Treaty referendum believed the ‘No’ campaign was more convincing, an EU survey has found.
A telephone poll commissioned by the European Commission in conjunction with the Taoiseach’s office after the rejection of the treaty showed a large majority (68 per cent) of Irish voters believed the No campaign to be more convincing.
Some 57 per cent of those who voted Yes said the No campaign was more persuasive, compared to 29 per cent who said they were more convinced by the No side of the debate.
Just over a fifth (21 per cent) of voters changed their mind on how to vote during the campaign, but some 68 per cent said they did not change their initial view.
Those who voted yes were more likely to have changed their mind in the course of the campaign (25 per cent compared to 17 per cent of No voters).
“If we look at the ‘switchers’ within the Yes and No voters, we can say that for whatever complex reasons, the Yes campaign convinced more people to change their minds,” the commission said in the published survey.
Half of the Yes voters believed the outcome of the referendum would harm the economy, while just 17 per cent of the No voters held this view.
Some 76 per cent of the randomly selected 2,000 respondents aged 18 and over said they believed the result would put Ireland in a strong position to renegotiate the Lisbon Treaty.
Those who voted Yes did so for various reasons, including feeling that it was in Ireland’s best interest (32 per cent), that Ireland benefits from the EU (19 per cent), that it would help the economy (9 per cent) and keep Ireland engaged in Europe (9 per cent).
The main reason given by No voters for their decision was what they believed to be a lack of information about the treaty (22 per cent) followed by the desire to protect Irish identity (12 per cent).
Initial results of the survey taken from June 13th to June 15th were released earlier this week.
The full report is available on the European Commission website.