Poll suggests Romania's ruling coalition would remain at rule after next year's elections

The latest poll conducted by LARICS for the National Liberal Party (PNL) indicates that some two-thirds of the voters of each of the two ruling parties (PNL and the Social Democrats) would prefer their parties to run independently and not as part of a coalition.

The same study indicates that the sole possible majority coalition after the elections is the incumbent one of the Liberals and Social Democrats.

Thus, the poll for the general elections shows PSD would get 32% of the votes, some 8pp above the Liberals' 24% score, Hotnews.ro reported.

The only other parties to make the electoral threshold, AUR and USR, would get 14% of the votes each. However, the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR has constantly received just over the 5% threshold. 

As for the presidential elections, the LARICS poll confirms that former Social Democrats' president and candidate, currently NATO deputy general secretary Mircea Geoana, is the preferred option (31.3%), even if running on the Social Democrats' ticket. Previous polls indicated that "independent" candidate Geoana would be preferred.

Former prime minister Victor Ponta (indicated by the survey as running for Social Democrats) would get more votes than the former head anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi (25.2%), the poll indicates. The leaders of the two major parties, Marcel Ciolacu (22%, PSD) and Nicolae Ciuca (20%, PNL), are close to each other. 

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(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)