Incumbent President Igor Dodon and the leader of the Action and Solidarity Party Maia Sandu are the favorites for President in the upcoming elections, according to a poll carried out by the sociological company [imas] during February 7-19, 2020. The leader of the Democratic Party Pavel Filip, ex-Premier, is ranked third.

If presidential elections were held next Sunday, 40.2% of the decided voters would pick Igor Dodon, 28.2% Maia Sandu, while 9.2% Pavel Filip. Also, 7.6% of those polled would support the Communist leader Vladimir Voronin, 3.9% the leader of the Our Party Renato Usatyi, 3.4% the leader of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Andrei Năstase, whereas 3% Dorin Chirtoacă.

If snap parliamentary elections were held next Sunday, 42.1% of those decided would vote for the Party of Socialists, 27.95% for the Action and Solidarity Party, 9.3% for the Democratic Party, 6% for the Shor Party, while 5.4% for the Party of Communists. Other parties would get less than 3%.

[imas] director general Doru Petruţi, in a news conference at IPN, said these rankings and results can fluctuate depending on who the candidates are. The data show none of the candidates manages to significantly go above the electoral basis of the own party. But things will change closer to the elections and some of the candidates will succeed in expanding the own electoral basis to a particular extent. “At least this measurement shows that Igor Dodon and Maia Sandu will distance themselves from the other candidates in the race. But I note that if someone is absent from this list or withdraws, the problem will be how the given votes will be redistributed to the other candidates,” stated Doru Petruți.

The respondents were asked what opinion they have about eventual snap parliamentary elections given the current political situation. 60% of those polled said that these are useless, while 30% said these are necessary. 10% don’t know or didn’t answer. 58% of those interviewed said that if snap parliamentary elections take place, changes will not occur and the situation will remain almost the same. Also, if snap parliamentary elections are held, 27% believe these should take place together with the presidential elections, 14% earlier than the presidential elections and 10% after the presidential elections.

The poll covered a representative sample of 1,109 respondents. The margin of sampling error is ± 3%. The survey was commissioned by Public Media.