The gap between the frontrunner in Romania\u2019s presidential elections, isolationist nationalist George Simion, and its challenger with a pro-EU orientation, Nicu\u015for Dan, is smaller than 10 percentage points (pp): 54.8% versus 45.2% of the voters committed to attending the second round, according to a poll carried out by Verifield and published by Nicu\u015for Dan.<\/p>\n
The gap seems significantly smaller compared to the wide advance marked by Simion in the first round, which it won with nearly 41% of the votes compared to Dan\u2019s score of under 21%.<\/p>\n
However, the bigger picture revealed by the Verified poll is more complex and points to a very large number of non-answers: 14.7% said they didn\u2019t know\/decided, 8.9% refused to answer, 4.9% opted not to attend the vote, and 1.4% said that they would annul their vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thus, some 30% of the electorate are potential voters with an option not yet known. For comparison, 38.9% of those polled opted firmly for George Simion and 31.3% for Nicu\u015for Dan. Only the 14.7% share of undecided voters could totally reverse the score or triple the advance of George Simion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The smaller gap between the two candidates in the Romanian presidential elections, compared to the second round, is explained by the large number of voters opting for Nicu\u015for Dan out of the electorate that supported the other candidates. Even the voters of Victor Ponta \u2013 a candidate with a declared nationalist view \u2013 opted instead for Nicusor Dan).<\/p>\n