The SNP is on course to match Labour's clout in Scotland's local councils, according to a new super-poll.

The survey of nearly 1900 people by YouGov showed the SNP has surged by eight points in the past month in its support at local authority level.

Labour's support fell by five points, leaving the SNP one point ahead, by 30 to 29%. Among those saying they are likely to vote, the SNP lead was four points: 32 to 28%.

That registers the first preference vote, in the new council voting system, for which the ballot paper requires the electorate to register preferences by number instead of choosing only one candidate.

As a result, such poll findings are only an indication of the balance of support, but because the second and third preferences will have a big influence on the outcome, it is impossible to project results from such a poll.

Labour was always certain to lose ground in council chambers because the new voting system removed its in-built electoral advantage in first-past-the-post ward voting. But it seems clear from this and other polls that Labour dominance, particularly in central Scotland, is in even more trouble than expected.

Under the old system, Labour won 33% of the vote in 2003 and 42% of councillors, while the SNP secured 24% of the vote and 14% of wards.

Second and third preferences could be particularly important to smaller parties, but it would be meaningless to survey those. On first preferences, Tories were found to register 14% support, LibDems 13%, independents would get 8% of first votes according to the poll, and the Greens had 4%.

The poll shows the Single Transferable Voting (STV) system itself faces a major hurdle, through ignorance of it. Asked, what people knew about the new system, only 28% said they knew about it, 40% said they had heard about it but did not know any details, and 32% of the survey sample had not heard about it at all.

James Mitchell, a politics professor at Strathclyde University, interpreted the findings: "People are not only willing to vote differently in list and constituency votes, but also in local council elections. Given that people are showing some sophistication in using their votes in different ways, you can see this would continue under STV.

"But many people do not understand the system, and it is pretty unlikely they will learn about it by polling day.

"This suggests it would have been better to have local government elections on a separate day, running a more successful public information exercise in tandem with what the parties were doing."

The poll's top finding, meanwhile,was a large gap in favour of the SNP in Holyrood voting intentions.

As reported in Sunday newspapers, the SNP was eight points ahead on the constituency voting intentions and five points ahead on regional list votes. The poll found the constituency/regional voting intentions were: SNP 38/32, Labour 30/27, LibDems 15/12 and Conservatives were on12/14.

The poll was carried out by YouGov for the Economic and Social Research Council, as part of a study by professors from Strathclyde, Lancaster and Sheffield universities. A projection of those voting intentions, if applied uniformly throughout Scotland, would mean the SNP winning 46 seats, up from 27 at the 2003 election, Labour on 40, down by 10 on last time, LibDems would gain one to 18, and Tories would remain at 18.

YouGov carried out another poll, published on Friday, that suggested a nine point lead for the SNP and a sharp rise in Green support. But the more recent poll projected Green MSPs falling from seven to five by Friday morning.