AlHijjah 23, 1432, Nov 19, 2011, SPA -- Slovenia's conservative opposition, led by former prime minister Janez Jansa, are leading the popularity polls two weeks before early elections, dpa cited the Delo daily as reporting Saturday. Quoting its own survey, it said Jansa's Democratic Party would presently win 18.1 per cent of the votes, ahead of Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic's new party, Positive Slovenia, with 15.3 per cent. Gregor Virant's liberal Civic List was third with 8.6, while Prime Minister Borut Pahor's Social Democratic Party placed fourth in the survey, with only 5.4 per cent of the voters supporting it, Delo said. Though elections are on December 4, almost a third of the 1.6 million registered voters are still undecided, while 6.5 per cent said they will abstain. A party must win at least 4 per cent of the ballots cast to qualify for seats in the parliament. Elections were forced early in Slovenia when Pahor failed to push reforms that were to curb spending and shore up shaky national finances. The former Yugoslav republic, joined the European Union in 2004 and the eurozone in 2007.
