BUCHAREST (Romania), November 18 (SeeNews) – Romania's incumbent head of state Traian Basescu and Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana are tied in a neck-to-neck race four days ahead of the presidential elections and will likely face each other in a run-off vote, a poll indicated.
Basescu, the informal leader of ruling Democratic-Liberal Party, PD-L, and Geoana from opposition PSD would win 32% of the vote each in the first round of the elections to be held on Sunday, the survey conducted by local INSOMAR polling agency showed.
Crin Antonescu of opposition National Liberal Party, PNL, ranked third with 19% support in the survey of 11,973 respondents conducted between November 13 and November 15 and released on Tuesday.
Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu, who runs as an independent, followed with 5.0% support rating.
The poll also indicted that Geoana would win the second round, to be held on December 6, with 54% of the vote, compared to 46% for Basescu.
If Basescu faces Antonescu in the second round, the challenger would win the run-off vote with 52% support, compared to 48% for Basescu.
Twelve candidates will vie for the president's seat in the first round.
INSOMAR also polled Romanians on the referendum for parliamentary reform called by Basescu for the day of presidential elections. Romanian citizens will be asked whether they want to transform the country's bicameral parliament into a single chamber and cut the number of MPs to 300 from 471 now.
Eighty percent of those polled back the idea to transform the two houses of parliament - The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies - into a unicameral parliament. Eighty-seven percent of the repondents said they would support the idea to cut the number of legislators.
The margin of error in the poll was +/-3.0%, INSOMAR said.