Poll shows Liberal, Social Democrat candidates in tight race for Bucharest mayor seat

The Social Democrat (PSD) candidate for the Bucharest mayor seat, Daniel Baluta, mayor of District 4 and president of PSD Bucharest organisation, leads with 26.6% of the general voting intentions expressed in the latest poll conducted by Inscop for Informat.ro. He is closely followed by the Liberal (PNL) candidate Ciprian Ciucu, currently mayor of District 6 and PNL first vice-president, according to Hotnews.ro.

The places change, however, when it comes to the voters committed to attend the voting: PNL's Ciucu leads with 27.1% of the voting intentions expressed by those committed to attend the ballot, followed by PSD's Baluta (24.0%).

The third-placed position in the poll, in both rankings, is held by the candidate Anca Alexandrescu, backed by the isolationist party AUR, with 19.1% general voting intentions and a 21.3% score among those committed.

The candidate backed by reformist USR and president Nicusor Dan, Cătălin Drulă, fell to fourth place from the leading positions held in past polls, with a disappointing score of 11.6% among the general electorate and 12.1% among the voters committed to attending the ballot.

Reacting to the survey, Drulă blamed the Liberals for allegedly manipulating the polls to diminish his own position among the electorate that the two parties share. He said that such poll-based strategies were announced by PNL in advance and would be aimed at securing control over Bucharest's budget for the PNL-PSD coalition.

"'We will kill you with the polls' - that's what they told me a month ago when the decision was made to organise the elections. The stakes are enormous. To capture the capital for PNL-PSD. The party networks, which are embezzling public money, see a catastrophe if they lose the General City Hall. It's the strategy they used twice against Nicușor Dan, both in 2016 with Predoiu and in 2024 with Burduja. It's unfair that Ciprian Ciucu is using this," wrote Cătălin Drulă on his Facebook page.

However, Drulă's decline in the polls may be attributed to the weakening support enjoyed by his political sponsor, Nicusor Dan, who recently took several steps seen by his supporters as inappropriate (supporting magistrates' excessive demands and firing his advisor, Ludovic Orban).

Out of those polled by Insomar, 72% declared firm intention to attend the voting, while 9.4% said they will certainly skip the ballot.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Alberto Grosescu)