LISBON VOTE SURVEY:PARTY LOYALTY did not persuade voters to back the Yes campaign in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, with most Labour and Green Party supporters voting No.
But a huge majority of Sinn Féin supporters followed their party's campaign line and voted against the treaty, according to an internal report of the European Commission.
The information is contained in a report, marked confidential, which was compiled from the results of a flash Eurobarometer opinion poll conducted after the No vote. Most of the details on the reasons why people voted against Lisbon were released in a separate report published by the EU executive last Friday. But the information on how supporters of the political parties voted in the referendum was not released because of its "political nature".
The report shows that 60 per cent of Fianna Fáil supporters voted in favour of the treaty compared to just 51 per cent of Fine Gael supporters. A majority of Labour supporters (55 per cent) voted against the treaty while just 45 per cent supported it. The Green Party also failed to persuade its supporters to back the treaty, with 57 per cent casting their vote against the treaty and just 43 per cent voting in favour.
The Progressive Democrats persuaded its backers to support the treaty, with 69 per cent voting in favour. However, just 2 per cent of people surveyed said they supported the party.
Sinn Féin managed to persuade 95 per cent of its supporters to vote No to Lisbon while just 5 per cent of its supporters surveyed said they backed the treaty.
The report concludes that party loyalty had "not influenced the vote" but the campaign and the messages of the No side had mobilised No voters in the last week of the campaign.
LISBON: party supporters' votes
PARTY YES NO
Fianna Fáil (41% of those surveyed said they support FF) 60% 40%
Fine Gael (20% of those surveyed said they support FG) 51% 49%
Labour (9% of those surveyed said they support Labour) 45% 55%
Green Party (6% of those surveyed said they support the Greens) 43% 57%
Sinn Féin (6% of those surveyed said they support Sinn Féin) 5% 95%
Progressive Democrats (2% of those surveyed said they support PDs) 69% 31%
All others 39% 61%
(17% of those surveyed said they didn't remember or didn't answer)
Source: flash Eurobarometer poll conducted after the referendum