BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party maintained a slim lead over an opposition alliance before Sunday's parliamentary election, a survey by the think tank IDEA Institute showed on Thursday.
The poll, conducted between March 22 and 28, put support for Orban's nationalist Fidesz at 41{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} of the electorate, up from 40{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} in early March, while the six-party opposition alliance stood at 39{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3}, gaining two points from the previous survey.
The ranks of the undecided fell by five points to 6{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3}, the poll showed.
Orban faces a united opposition for the first time since he came to power in a 2010 election landslide. Its candidate for prime minister is Peter Marki-Zay, an independent who is now mayor of Hodmezovasarhely, a town in southern Hungary.
Among decided voters, Fidesz held a more comfortable lead, leading the opposition alliance by 5 percentage points. Other polls published earlier this week also put Orban's ruling party ahead of their rivals.
DATE AGENCY FIDESZ OPPOSITION UNDECIDED
March 22-28 IDEA 39 6
41
Late March Median 40 32 20
March 21-27 Zavecz 39 36 19
March 23-25 Zavecz 41 39 16
March 16-18 Republikon 41 39 16
March 2-11 IDEA 37 11
40
Feb 18-24 Republikon 40 39 16
Feb 22-26 Median 39 32 20
Jan 31-Feb 9 IDEA 38 34 13
Feb 2-10 Zavecz 38 36 20
Jan 20-25 Republikon 36 34 22
Jan 4-14 IDEA 39 37 10
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
