November 28 (SeeNews) - Around a quarter of Macedonians, or 25.8%, would vote for the governing conservative VMRO-DPMNE party if parliamentary elections were held now, local media reported citing the results of a new survey conducted by Macedonian research agency Brima, part of Gallup International Association.
Approximately the same number of respondents, 26%, see VMRO-DPMNE as the political party most capable of improving the nation's standard of living, Republika online media outlet reported on Friday.
The main opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, would receive 16.8% of the votes if parliamentary elections elections were held now, while 21.6% of Macedonians see the party as able to improve their standard of living.
Macedonia will hold early general elections on December 11 as part of the Przino agreement, a deal brokered by the EU with the aim to resolve a protracted political crisis in Macedonia.
According to the Brima poll, 43.7% of the Macedonians say that they prefer VMRO-DPMNE election programme, while 22.9% think that SDSM's programme is better, Republika online reported.
Looking at the politicians, 42.5% of the respondents in the Brima survey said they would prefer VMRO-DPMNE's leader Nikola Gruevski to become the next prime minister, while 24.1% would prefer SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, if they had to choose between the two.
About 43.5% of all respondents state that they don't trust any politician. As many as 38.3% of the participants in the survey said they have confidence in Gruevski, while Zoran Zaev is trusted by 17.2%, Republika online reported.
The survey was conducted November 11-17 among 1,006 respondents older than 18 years.