Almost half of Romanians (49.4%) believe that the 2024 elections should be organized separately, while 46.6% are in favor of combining some ballots, according to a poll conducted by INSCOP and commissioned by News.ro. The largest number of supporters – 82.9% – is a combination of the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The percentage of those who believe that the first round of presidential elections should be held simultaneously with the local elections is 78%. More than 42% of respondents believe that the most important this year are the presidential elections, and 20.4% – local elections.

Elections to the European Parliament are considered the most important by 4.7% of respondents. Almost 12% of them say that all surveys are equally important.

Poll Inscop: What are the most important elections this year

When asked which for them are the most important elections to be held in 2024, 42.3% of respondents indicated presidential elections, 20.4% – local elections, 18.1% – parliamentary elections, and 4.7% – European Parliament elections. 11.9% say that all are equally important, 1.8% – that none is important, and 0.8% do not know or do not answer.

PSD and PNL voters, people under the age of 45, people with a lower level of education, blue- or gray-collar workers, residents of Bucharest and big cities attach the greatest importance to the presidential election.

People aged 45 to 60, inactive, potentially active, residents of small towns, to a greater extent than other categories of the population, say that local elections are the most important for them.

Voters of the United Right Alliance, people with higher education, workers, residents of Bucharest and people with a higher income level attach more importance to parliamentary elections than other categories of the population.

Almost half of Romanians believe that elections cannot be combined

According to 49.4% of Romanians, the 2024 elections should be organized separately and not mixed with each other. On the other hand, 46.6% believe that some elections in 2024 should be combined (held simultaneously). 4% do not know or do not answer this question.

Local elections are combined with the first round of presidential elections

78% of those in favor of combining elections would agree that the first round of presidential elections should be held simultaneously with local elections. 21.3% would not agree, 0.7% do not know or do not answer.

Passive idlers, blue-collar workers, and those without social media accounts are more likely than the rest of the population to agree that the first round of presidential elections should be held at the same time as the local ones.

Parliamentary elections were combined with the first round of presidential elections

82.9% of those who support unification of elections would agree that the first round of presidential elections should be held simultaneously with parliamentary elections. 15.5% would not agree, 1.6% do not know or do not answer.

They will agree that the first round of presidential elections should be held simultaneously with the parliamentary elections, especially people aged 30 to 45, people with higher education, civil servants, public sector employees.

Last year, the share of those who supported the unification was much higher

“The presidential election is perceived by the population as the most important of the four elections that will be organized in 2024, so the presidential competition will strongly influence the electoral dynamics in other elections. In the context of the public debate on the consolidation of elections and the various opinions expressed in the public space, the opinions of the population are divided, approximately half support the idea of ​​consolidation, and the other half are in favor of a separate organization of elections.

Last year, the share of those who supported unification was significantly higher than those who preferred separate elections. INSCOP Research tested two merger scenarios – parliamentary with presidential and local with presidential. At the time of data collection, the hypothesis of combining local elections with presidential elections did not appear in public space.

Among those who prefer unification, the vast majority, about 80%, agree either with the combination of parliamentary elections with the first round of presidential elections, as was the case before 2004, or with the combination of local elections with the first round of presidential elections. . A very high percentage indicates that those who agree with the unification of elections will support any scenario of the simultaneous organization of elections,” says Remus Štefuriak, director of INSCOP Research.

• The survey was conducted by INSCOP Research on the order of News.ro Press Agency. The data were collected from January 16 to 24 by the CATI method (telephone interviews), using a questionnaire. The size of the simple stratified sample is 1100 people, representative of significant socio-demographic categories (gender, age, profession) for the non-institutionalized population of Romania aged 18 and over. The maximum permissible data error is ± 2.95% with a confidence level of 95%.