BTA: Poll Identifies Shift in Bucharest Mayoral Race, One Candidate Withdraws

The latest poll among Bucharest residents shows a tight race between three candidates in the mayoral elections for Romania’s capital, which will be held this Sunday. The survey was conducted by the AtlasIntel Institute on behalf of HotNews.

The mayoral position in Bucharest became vacant after Nicusor Dan was elected President of Romania during his second term as mayor.

The poll places the Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate and current mayor of Bucharest’s Fourth Sector, Daniel Baluta, in first place with 23.3%, in second place is independent candidate Anca Alexandrescu, supported by the opposition Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), with 23.2%, and in third place is the National Liberal Party (PNL) candidate and current mayor of the Sixth Sector, Ciprian Ciucu, with 21.7%. Fourth is Catalin Drula, candidate of the ruling coalition party Save Romania Union (USR), with 15.5%, followed by Ana Maria Ciceala from the extra-parliamentary SENS party with 8.4%.

In a previous AtlasIntel poll conducted two weeks ago, Ciprian Ciucu was leading, followed by Daniel Baluta and Anca Alexandrescu.

The new survey was conducted between November 27 and 30 with the participation of 2,964 people, and the margin of error is 2%.

Meanwhile, today independent candidate and former MEP Vlad Gheorghe withdrew from the race and urged people to support Ciprian Ciucu in the December 7 elections. He announced this at a press conference together with the mayor of the Sixth Sector in front of the City Hall building. The event was broadcast live online.

“After several discussions and after reviewing the polls together, we see what is already known: an extremist candidate with connections and a history in the Social Democratic Party has real chances of becoming mayor of the capital. At this moment, the responsible thing to do is to support Ciprian Ciucu so that Bucharest can remain a stronghold of democracy and not fall into the hands of some SDP extremists. I ask everyone who intended to vote for me in the December 7 elections to support Ciprian Ciucu. This is a union for democracy because the situation is extremely serious,” Gheorghe said. He did not specify which candidate he was referring to.

“Thank you to Vlad Gheorghe for this difficult but responsible gesture. Both of us have a clear vision for this city, which is against bureaucracy, aims to eliminate corruption, and seeks to improve administrative efficiency. We are united by European and democratic values,” Ciucu responded.

Vlad Gheorghe’s name will remain on the ballot.