BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romanian far-right pro-Russian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu remained voters’ top choice ahead of a re-run of a presidential election in May, an opinion survey showed late on Monday.
The survey comes one month after the European Union state’s top court annulled the presidential election in which Georgescu was the frontrunner two days before the second round, citing allegations of Russian interference in his favour.
The cancellation came after state documents showed Georgescu, a critic of NATO who has praised Romania’s 1930s fascist leaders, had benefited from an unfair social media campaign likely to have been orchestrated by Russia, accusations Moscow has denied.
Conducted by pollster Avangarde and cited by online news website hotnews.ro, the survey showed Georgescu gaining 38% of the vote in the first round on May 4.
Crin Antonescu, the proposed single candidate of the pro-European coalition government would get 25% of the vote, followed by Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who said he could run as an independent, who would get 17%.
Elena Lasconi, the leader of opposition centrist Save Romania Union, who had made it into the now-voided second round with Georgescu, would get 6%.
The poll surveyed 1,354 people between Jan. 10-16 and has a margin of error of 2.6%.
The re-run election will take place on May 4, with a second round on May 18.
It remains unclear whether Georgescu, who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, will be allowed to run for president again. In October of last year, the top court banned another far-right politician from running in a move critics said overstepped court powers.
Romania has the longest land border with Ukraine of any European Union and NATO member state. It has helped export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Sharon Singleton)
