According to the Ipsos survey, Peter Pellergini and Ivan Korčok would succeed in the first round of the presidential elections in Slovakia. Support for both is roughly 37 percent. Korčok is thus catching up with his opponent, Pellegrini still has better numbers in the second round.
The Ipsos election model monitored how the presidential elections in Slovakia would turn out, the first round will take place next Saturday. The researchers collected data from March 12 to 16, roughly a week before the first round.
In it, the main favorites of the race would do best – the speaker of the parliament and the Hlas party Peter Pellegrini, as well as ex-foreign minister Ivan Korčok, who is supported by part of the opposition.
Both would get regarding 37 percent of the vote in the first round. Pellegrini is doing a little better, he would get 37.4 percent of the votes, Korčok is only slightly behind, he would be supported by 36.6 percent of the voters.
Compared to the previous survey, the support between the two candidates is leveling off.
Korčok maintains his support, Pellegrini has lost roughly three percentage points since February – a similar growth in the meantime was recorded by the third candidate in the order, former Minister of Justice Štefan Harabin. Over 11 percent of Slovaks would vote for him in the first round.
It is the votes of his constituents that may be crucial in the second round. Ipsos found that Pellegrini would now win over Korčok in the second round – specifically, he would get 53.4 percent of the vote.
Since the last wave of surveys, the difference between the two candidates in the second round has decreased, Korčok slightly narrowing Pellegrini’s lead.
However, the head of the parliament has an increasingly strong position a week before the first round and, according to researchers, even greater electoral potential.
According to the survey, Pellegrini is more acceptable to more Slovaks – specifically to 50.5 percent of people, while Korčok’s potential is four percent lower. The former foreign minister now has more convinced voters.
About a quarter of people definitely want to vote for him, Pellegrini’s voter core reaches 21 percent.
As Denník N describes, the two candidates have never faced each other in a televised debate. And this despite the fact that the first round of elections awaits Slovaks already on March 23. Both are scheduled to meet for the first time on Monday evening on Markíza TV.
Apart from these two candidates, the other candidates do not have much of a chance to advance to the second round. The aforementioned Harabin is rather a representative of the anti-system, for example, he speaks of Pellegrini in the sense that he cannot run for office at all.
In the first round, the chairman of the Slovak party (formerly OLaNO) Igor Matovič would take fourth place with roughly four percent, other candidates would not even get three percent of the votes.
The chairman of the coalition Slovak National Party, Andrej Danko, also has very low support numbers, he would not even get a percent of the votes. (Diary N)
