A recent survey by INSCOP found that 29.8 percent of Romanians would give their vote to current Prime Minister Victor Ponta should he run for president this year, while 22.4 percent would vote with Crin Antonescu, the leader of the National Liberal Party PNL.

Ponta and Antonescu are together running the ruling coalition the Social Liberal Union USL, and Antonescu's name has been mentioned by the USL as a potential presidency candidate. The official nominations however have not yet been announced, so it is unclear whether the USL will go with one or two presidential candidates.

Third in the poll came Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu from the Civic Force, with 11.3 percent, and Cătălin Predoiu from the Democrat Liberal Party PDL, with 5.8 percent. Then followed Corneliu Vadim Tudor from the Great Romania Party PRM, with 4.5 percent, Kelemen Hunor from the Magyar Union UDRM with 4.4 percent, and Dan Diaconescu from the Popular Party Dan Diaconescu with 1.8 percent.

About 20 percent of the respondents would see another person outside this list as president, including Romanian Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu, Sibiu mayor Klaus Iohannis or Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu.

A group of 10 percent of the surveyed sample said they would not vote at all, and 7.7 percent chose the option “I don't know/I prefer not to answer”.

“We need to take into account this poll was made before the political opponents for the presidential race were announced,” reminded Darie Cristea, coordinator of programs for INSCOP Research.

The poll was made at the request of daily newspaper Adevarul between January 16 and 21, on 1,054 people over 18. The maximum error margin is of 3 percentage points.

editor@romania-insider.com