Stolojan makes up for lost time in the presidential race

Former Premier Theodor Stolojan is rapidly gaining ground for a possible counter-candidacy against Ion Iliescu during autumn presidential elections, in line with a poll conducted by the Urban and Regional Sociology Centre (CURS), between June 22-29.

Stolojan is favoured as a candidate for presidency in all potential alliances that do not include PDSR (Party of Social Democracy), and the only alternative standing chances against the main opposition party is the alliance between PNL (Liberal Party) and ApR (Alliance for Romania), but led by the former Premier or including Mugur Isarescu.

Although the latest polls failed to include him within the category of popular political personalities or in the category of “other” candidates, the CURS poll credits Stolojan with the third position, with a percentage of 10%. The poll’s authors underscore that the question “If elections for the position of president of Romania were held next week, who would you vote for?” was open, and interviewees named Stolojan without being presented any list with personalities to choose from.

The former Premier shares the third position with Teodor Melescanu, the official candidate of ApR, but the 10 percent of the ApR leader are the consequence of a fall in the electorate’s preferences, as, in previous polls, he was credited with approximately 17 percent of voting intentions.

Sociologist Sebastian Lazaroiu states that the score and position won by Stolojan are the most surprising element of CURS poll, since the former Premier did not announce his intention to run for presidency.

Lazaroiu considers that the appearance of Stolojan limited the number of options for Emil Constantinescu, but not the votes for Iliescu. “Stolojan does not seem to deprive Iliescu of votes because his name is associated with a PDSR-alternative alliance,” he told Mediafax news agency.

The sociologist estimates that Melescanu’s popularity will keep going down if disclosures on his connections to Adrian Costea and the latter’s implications in the establishment of ApR continue.

Emil Constantinescu manages to keep the second position, but he has a lower percentage as compared to the latest polls. CURS grants him 13%, while an IMAS poll published a few days ago credited him with 17% of the options.

The first position still belongs to Ion Iliescu, who benefits from 48% of potential votes, having three more percentage points as compared to the poll conducted by IMAS in March-April 2000. Following a PDSR-ApR alliance, Ion Iliescu would obtain 57% of the votes.

While Emil Constantinescu is still negotiating in order to find allies that might help him win the elections, Theodor Stolojan is the presidency candidate who enjoys the support of every alliance excluding PDSR, as shown by the CURS poll. According to CURS sociologists, “the most popular alliance” excluding PDSR is PNL-ApR, which enjoys the support of one third of the population (34%). Forty-five percent of those who support this alliance would vote Stolojan for president.

Lazaroiu believes that the alliance between ApR and PNL would be the only one that could represent an alternative to PDSR, provided it promoted for presidency a personality like Stolojan or Isarescu. CURS specialists say that the chances of any party or candidate would increase if Stolojan were associated to Isarescu.