Voters in Romania head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new legislative body.  

Incumbent Prime Minister Ludovic Orban is hoping his National Liberals will perform well enough to cement his position for the next four years and possibly allow them to govern on their own. However it seems likely they will need the support of coalition partners.

This is the fourth time Romanians have been to the polls in the past 18 months, with presidential, European and local elections following in quick succession.

Here's what you need to know.

WHO ARE THE MAIN CONTENDERS?

The center-right and generally pro-EU National Liberals (PNL) is campaigning under the slogan "We Develop Romania." They led in recent opinion polling, with 28.5 percent planning to vote for them.

Romania's President Klaus Iohannis, who is from the PNL, has been openly supporting the party, dismissing criticism of the constitutional propriety of doing so.

While the PNL is in government, the Social Democrats (PSD) party currently has the largest number of seats in parliament. Campaigning under the slogan "Restart Romania," the same recent poll put its support at 23.6 percent. 

Although the PSD has won the popular vote for many years, the party has struggled since 2017, when its attempt to change anti-corruption law to protect then Prime Minister Liviu Dragnea from a prison sentence led to street protests. The government was removed in a no-confidence motion in 2019. 

The PSD, generally seen as the inheritors of the Romanian Communist Party, draws its main pool of voters from the middle and lower classes, from public servants, including the military and the police forces, while the alliance of the right seeks the support of younger urban voters, with higher education, and of those who are living and working abroad. 

Playing in the big league since 2016, the 'Save Romania' Union (USR) forged an alliance with PLUS, a party founded by former prime minister Dacian Cioloș, who is popular with the progressive youth voters, and who is also a former EU commissioner for agriculture.

The younger USR-Plus alliance, which is  EU-oriented, currently has 18 percent support. Pro România, a party founded by former Social Democratic PM Victor Ponta, is currently at around 9.5 percent in the polls.

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THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Sergiu Gherghina, an associate professor at the University of Glasgow, says the election will bring three novelties to Romanian politics. 

First, that the PSD is not likely to win the popular vote. Second, that the National Liberals are aiming to win in their own right and, third, that the party will remain in power after the election, breaking a pattern that has held since 1989.

In a blog post for the London School of Economics he writes: "Until now, essentially every election in the post-communist period has brought about a dramatic change in the composition of the government. 

"One partial exception to this rule was in 2012, when the caretaker government appointed half a year before the legislative elections, stayed in power via the Social Liberal Union's landslide victory. This time, the PNL stands to stay in power after a little over a year in government – though it has been a year marked by turmoil."

WHAT ARE THE MAIN ISSUES?

The pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis is, as expected, driving this election. While less than a year ago the headlines were all about the war on corruption, with battle lines clearly divided between PSD and the liberal right, PNL and USR-Plus, the alignments now remain similar, but the rhetoric has adapted to the new pandemic situation.

The outcome of the vote may now depend on the plans to handle the coronavirus crisis, with many debating the pros and the cons of reinstating a blanket lockdown after the elections, while the left insisted the legislative elections should be postponed until an effective remedy for COVID-19 is available.

Opponents of the all-out quarantine, including Pro România leader Victor Ponta, point to the necessity of having the schools reopen, since 32 percent of pre-college students and pupils, (a million Romanian children), have no access to online education due to poverty.

Unemployment has also been rising since March, with the number of job seekers coming dangerously closer to half a million, and with many Romanians returning home, after having lost their jobs in the West.

The hospitality industry is among those in which turnover collapsed in 2020, although open-air facilities are still allowed to operate in Romania's outdoor harsh winter cold.

Economic development

Ordinary Romanians and foreign investors alike have been begging for more motorways since the beginning of the century, but in 2019 the country only offered 866km of motorways, and on December 2, another 16km were inaugurated in the region of Moldova, just days before the elections.

Romania's citizens remain among the poorest in the European Union, with an estimated 3 million or more living and working abroad, most of them with no intention of ever returning – there are 717,000 Romanian voters registered abroad.

The minimum wage in Romania is now $576 per month, which is significantly higher than in Bulgaria, where the minimum wage is set at $385, but it pays a lot better to work in the Romanian public sector.

The role of the church

The Orthodox Church has a major influence in Romanian public life, despite priests not being allowed to run for office.

For three decades, almost all politicians have paid close attention to the will and the needs of the Orthodox patriarchy.

For example, it is estimated that, until 2018, the government had contributed around $98m to the construction of a new cathedral, while local authorities added another $47m. The country has 18,000 churches – compared with 6,300 schools and around 570 hospitals.

Voter turnout

The 47.6 percent turnout among the 18m domestic voters in the first round of the last presidential election suggests a general lack of interest throughout Romanian society, although 675,000 Romanians registered overseas turned out.