If a presidential election was held next Sunday, 27.9% of the decided respondents of a poll conducted by iData would vote for Maia Sandu, 13.3% for Igor Dodon, 5.7% for Ion Chicu, 4.4% for Ion Ceban, while 4.3% for Irina Vlah. As for the holding of a referendum on EU membership simultaneously with the presidential election, 43% support this idea, 43.9% are against, while 13.1% are undecided or did not want to answer. The data is contained in the iData Barometer for March 2024.
In a press conference hosted by IPN, the executive director of the sociological company iData, Mihai Bologan, said that, most likely, two rounds of the presidential election will be needed because Maia Sandu would not gain the percentage needed to win by the first round. She would not accumulate a sufficient score even with the votes from the diaspora, even if the people vote massively. As for the referendum, the sociological data show that the Moldovans are pro-EU.
The barometer also shows that in March 2024, previous months’ trends regarding trust in Moldovan politicians remained the same. The top three politicians the people trust the most are: Maia Sandu – with 24.3%, Ilan Shor - 11.49% and Igor Dodon – 11.2%.
In case of parliamentary elections, out of those who are decided, 36.3% would vote for PAS, 20.0% - for PSRM, 18.8% - for Chance Party, while 7.6% - for PCRM. The Our Party would gain 4.7% of the votes of the decided electors.
The number of those who believe that things in Moldova are following a wrong direction decreased from 49.5% in January 2024 to 47.3% in March 2024. The number of those who say things are going right fell from 39.5% in January 2024 to 37.7% in March 2024. The number of undecided voters rose from 11% in January to 15% in March 2024.
When asked about the level of happiness, 18.3% of the Moldovans said they were very happy, 30.3% feel rather happy, 35.4% feel moderately happy, while 9.6% and 5.5% of the Moldovans feel unhappy and not happy at all.
The Metropolitan Church of Moldova and the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia are the most trusted institutions, according to the “net rating”, which shows substantial trust in religious institutions. The police come next, suggesting a relatively high level of trust in law enforcement. Government institutions, such as Parliament and the Cabinet, have positive trust ratings, but are lower in ranking than the religious institutions or the police.
Support for Moldova’s accession to the EU remained at practically the same level, with a slight increase – 57.4% in March 2024, compared to 56.7% in January 2024. At the same time, the number of those who declare themselves against European integration decreased from 34.4% in January 2024 to 32.8% in March 2024.
The survey was conducted during March 18-24 and covered a sample of 1,131 people from 322 localities. The maximum sampling error is 2.85%.
Note: IPN Agency offers the right of reply to persons who consider themselves targeted in the news made from the statements of the organizers of this press conference, including by facilitating the organization of another press conference under similar conditions.
