Ljubljana - Anže Logar, former foreign minister, would win the first round of the coming presidential election, according to a survey commissioned by weekly Mladina. He polled at 27.3%, followed by the lawyer Nataša Pirc Musar at 23.3%, who would win a potential face-off against Logar in the second round.

The survey, carried out by pollster Ninamedia, includes all eight candidates who have filed valid bids for the October election.

Third place in the first round went to MEP Milan Brglez (18.9%), who recently entered the race as the joint candidate of the coalition Freedom Movement and SocDems.

These three candidates appear to be the frontrunners as the rest have received significantly lower support.

Kočevje Mayor Vladimir Prebilič, supported by the non-parliamentary green party Vesna, polled at 2.3%, Miha Kordiš, an MP for the coalition Left, at 1.6%, and Janez Cigler Kralj, an MP for the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) and former labour minister, at 1.4%.

In the last two spots are Sabina Senčar (1.2%), a gynaecologist backed by the non-parliamentary party Resni.ca, known for its anti-Covid restrictions stance, and Gregor Bezenšek (0.7%), a musician and co-founder of a charity dedicated to children with rare diseases.

Nearly 22% of respondents are undecided and 1.6% would not go to the polls.

The survey asked the respondents to choose who they would vote for in the potential second round of the election, using different combinations of candidates.

If Logar, an MP for the opposition Democrats (SDS), and Pirc Musar made it to the second round, the latter would win with 44.5% against 39.9%; 8.5% said they would not vote for either of them, and 7% said they did not know who they would choose between them.

The race would be closer if Logar and Brglez were to compete in the second round. In this case, Brglez would take 42% and Logar 41.5%. Nearly 9% would not vote for either of them, and some 8% are not sure who of the two would get their vote.

If the second round featured Logar and Kordiš, the former would win convincingly with 51%, whereas the Left MP would get only 18.4%. Some 21% would not vote for either of them, and 10% would be undecided in this case.

The survey was carried out on 27 September among 500 respondents.