If presidential elections were held next Sunday, the chairman of the Party of Socialists Igor Dodon and the leader of the political project “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu would poll most of the votes – almost 30% against nearly 21% - and would thus compete in the second round, shows the Public Opinion Barometer for April 2016, IPN reports.

The chairman of the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” Andrei Nastase would rank third with slightly over 12%. He would be followed by the Communists’ leader Vladimir Voronin with 7.7% and the chairman of the “Our Party” Renato Usatyi with a similar percentage, even if this cannot run in elections because he is younger than 40. The head of the European People’s Party of Moldova Iurie Leanca would come sixth with 4%, the Democrats’ leader Marian Lupu – seventh with 3.4%, while the current Prime Minister Pavel Filip – eighth with about 3%.

Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca would rank ninth. Even if he is not eligible to take part in the presidential elections because of age, almost 2% of those polled would vote for him. Dorin Chirtoaca is followed by the current President Nicolae Timofti, who would gain 1.4% of the vote if he ran.

The respondents were asked who they would not vote for as Head of State. Over 52% of them said they would not vote for the first deputy chairman of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc, 39.5%  for the ex-Premier and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vlad Filat, 39.2% for the leader of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu, 33% for Marian Lupu, while 31% for Vladimir Voronin.

The Public Opinion Barometer is carried out by the Center for Sociological Investigations and Marketing “CBS-AXA”. It was commissioned by the Institute for Public Policy, which has presented the Barometer since 1998. The poll was conducted between April 16 and 24 and covered a sample of 1,143 persons from 86 communities. The margin of sampling error is 2.8%.