More than 50 percent of Romanians are interested in local elections / INSCOP

More than 50 percent of Romanians are interested in this June's local elections, with 38.4 percent intending to vote the tickets of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) for local and county councils and 36.7 intending to vote the tickets of the National Liberal Party (PNL), according to findings of an INSCOP poll released on Wednesday. 

The poll reveals that only 57.7 percent of Romanians say they are interested in this year's local elections; 22.3 percent say they are very much so, and 35.4 percent say they are not interested. As many as 19.4 percent say they are somehow interested; 12.6 percent not quite interested, while 9.9 percent are not interested at all in this June's elections. 

Out of the 57.7 percent of respondents who say they are interested in the local elections this year, only 44.3 percent have a vote intention, while 13.4 percent are undecided or declined to answer. 

If the local elections were held on Sunday, 38.4 percent of Romanians would vote PSD to local and county councils, while 36.7 percent would vote PNL. 

Next on the list of vote intentions for the local elections are the People's Movement Party (PMP), 5.5 percent; the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), 5.1 percent; the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals (ALDE), 4.1 percent; M10 - 1.6 percent; the National Union for Romania's Progress (UNPR), 1.2 percent; the Greater Romania Party (PRM), 1.2 percent; the Romanian Social Party (PSRO), 1 percent; the United Romania Party (PRU ), 0.7 percent and the Christian Democratic National Peasant Party (PNTCD), 0.6 percent. 

According to the same findings, 1.9 percent of Romanians would vote for independent candidates; 1.6 percent would pick another nationalist party, while 0.4 percent would vote a local or regional party. 

Asked if they voted the tickets of a newly established party in the local elections, only 27.2 percent of the respondents said yes, while 41.9 percent said no; 21.6 percent were undecided and 9.3 percent did not know/did not answer. 

At the same time, 39.7 percent say they would consider casting their ballots for an independent candidate with no ties to political parties, while 31.8 percent would not; 20.8 percent are still undecided whether or not to cast their votes for such a candidate, while 7.7 percent did not know, did not answer. 

''There is an important segment of the voters that would vote a new party or a non-affiliated candidate, provided that such candidates in the local elections have never been involved in politics,'' says INSCOP. 

The poll was commissioned by Adevarul media group and conducted by INSCOP Research, March 21-28, 2016, on a representative sample of 1,063 Romanians aged 18 years and over. The margin of error is plus/minus 3 percent, for an accuracy rate of 95 percent. The polling method was questionnaires filled in at the respondents' domicile. AGERPRES