POLITIC - November 26th 2004 Nastase leads the race for Cotroceni with 42%, 12% ahead of Basescu. The IRSOP poll carried out between 13th and 20th of November for Greenberg, Carville & Shrum (GCS), which was made public yesterday, shows that the National Union SDP (Social Democratic Party) + HPR (Humanist Party in Romania) and its Presidential candidate remain electorate’s favourites. By CARMEN VINTILA

According to the IRSOP poll, Adrian Nastase leads the presidential race with 42%, followed by the NLP (National Liberal Party) - DP (Democratic Party) Alliance candidate, Traian Basescu - 30%, and by the GRP (Great Romania Party) candidate, Corneliu Vadim Tudor - 13%. For the Parliamentary elections, electorate’s preferences’ classification is as it follows: the National Union SDP+HPR - 39%, the J.T. (Justice and Truth) NLP - DP Alliance - 33%, GRP 14%.

DIFFERENCES. The GCS statement reads that "when the interviewees find out that Adrian Nastase and Mircea Geoana are on the SDP+HPR candidates’ list, and that Traian Basescu and Calin Popescu Tariceanu lead Alliance’s list, the support reaches 46% for the National Union SDP+HPR, 33% for the Alliance and 10% for GRP". The figures base on a poll made by IRSOP for GCS, an international political consultancy company. This is the last poll before the first round of the elections on the 28th of December. Poll’s results came from an aleatory sample, representative on national level: 1,539 people aged more than 18. The error margin is +/- 2.5%.

Translation: SORIN BALAN

POLITIC - November 26th 2004 Nastase leads the race for Cotroceni with 42%, 12% ahead of Basescu. The IRSOP poll carried out between 13th and 20th of November for Greenberg, Carville & Shrum (GCS), which was made public yesterday, shows that the National Union SDP (Social Democratic Party) + HPR (Humanist P