Almost half of the population considers that the elections for the European Parliament (EP) and the referendum for the uninominal voting system launched by the president are equally important; however, most of those for whom the two events have a different importance underline the priority of the Euroelection. According to an opinion poll drawn up by INSOMAR, between 8 to13 November 2007, the percentage of those saying that the scrutiny for the EP is more important is of 28%, while the group of the referendum fans doesn't go over 13%. The difference is even more stressed when the importance of the events is regarded as compared to Romania's interest: 33% put the Euroelection on the first place and only 12% mention the referendum. A percentage of 49% of the subjects interviewed by INSOMAR appreciate that the two events have the same importance, which may dissimulate significant doses of social conformity - as the survey report points out. "However, the Europarliamentary elections are the priority, their political relevance being appreciated as superior to that of the referendum for the implementation of the uninominal voting system by 28% of the persons interviewed in the opinion poll. Only 13% of the subjects consider that the action of the referendum is more important as the scrutiny for the European Parliament, and 10% attach no importance to these events", according to INSOMAR. Sociologists claim that such a representation over the two forms of electoral scrutiny is almost identical, no matter the perspective from which their importance is appreciated, either it is about the subjective relevance of the event, or the fact that it concerns the Romanian society in its entirety. More content about the Government The level of social contentment expressed in connection with the Government's activity and that of the Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu recorded increases of approximately 4%, and 5% as compared to October, says the INSOMAR report. The majority (68%) however is pretty discontented or even displeased at all with the activity of the Tariceanu-led Executive. In a stand-by, however at a significant distance from the Government, the satisfaction level towards the activity of president Traian Basescu is higher (59%) in November as compared to the previous month. A percentage of 41% of the subjects expressed a negative appreciation to the activity of the head of state. (...) Few make the difference among systems As regards the level of information on the special features that distinguish the uninominal voting systems, only 9% of the respondents assume they can distinguish among their technical aspects, while 39% claim they can make the difference only between the list-based voting system and the uninominal one. A percentage of 39% consider they do not have sufficient data to distinguish among different voting systems, and 13% say they are not interested at all in such matters. The INSOMAR survey is part of a research program ordered by FSLI Petrom. The opinion poll was carried out on 1,230 individuals, a representative population sample for the population of Romania of full legal age. The maximum error for the outcomes obtained is 2.8%. Tariceanu and Boc, equal as credibility Traian Basescu enjoys the highest level of confidence in November, as his credibility rate continues to be high among the electorate (53%), as the survey report points out. Among the political personalities towards which Romanian have positive a appreciation, Basescu is followed by PLD (Liberal Democrat Party) leader Theodor Stolojan and by the leaders of the parties that had been part of the DA (Justice and Truth) Alliance, i.e. Emil Boc (PD - Democrat Party) and Calin Popescu-Tariceanu (PNL - National Liberal Party), each of them being rated to 26%. The rating continues with Mircea Geoana (23%), George Becali (21%), Corneliu Vadim Tudor (16%), Cozmin Gusa (15%), Dan Voiculescu (13%), Adrian Nastase (12%), Petre Roman (10%) si Marko Bela (7%). Except for president Basescu, all the other political personalities record more negative than positive appreciation. We should mention that Boc, Gusa, Voiculescu and Marko Bela have a deficit of notoriety of over five points each. As compared to the previous month, Emil Boc, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, Mircea Geoana, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Cosmin Gusa and Dan Voiculescu have recorded an increase of 1-3 points at the "confidence" indicator. More visible trends of decrease may be noticed in the case of George Becali ( - 4%), Petre Roman ( - 3%) and Marko Bela ( - 2%). PD is decreasing, but still on top The electoral preferences show slight decreasing tendencies in the case of PD (from 42% to 40%), but this doesn't significantly affect its position of authoritative leader of the political spectrum, say the authors of the survey report. If parliamentary elections were to take place next Sunday, PD would cumulate 40% of the voting intentions, double as their main competitors - PSD (-Social Democrat Party, 19%). According to INSOMAR, in the competition for the national Parliament, PNL would get 13%, while PRM (Greater Romania Party) and PLD (Liberal Democrat Party) - 6% each. UDMR (Democratic Union of Magyars in Romania) and PNG (New Generation Party) find themselves at the electoral threshold edge with 5% each and below are PC (Conservative Party) - 4% and PIN (National Initiative Party) - one percent. About 33.7% of the interviewed persons are undecided, wouldn't vote or do not answer. INSOMAR notices a more visible increase in the case of PLD (3% to 6%) and a less obvious one, of 1%, in the cases of PRM (5% to 6%) and PC (3% to 4%). As far as the other political parties are concerned, the voting intentions remain unchanged as compared to the previous month.

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