Most of the election runners entered the campaign preceding the November 30 parliamentary elections with electoral TV videos, posters, slogans and advertisements. By definition, the publicity is biased, but in the election campaign it represents the type of information that the voters accept most often. That’s why IPN decided to launch a series of analyses entitled “Electoral publicity interpreted honestly” by which to contribute to developing the political culture, analyzing neutrally the subtleties of the electoral advertisements. The election runners are analyzed in accordance with their position in ballots.
---
This last-but-one analysis will focus on the other parties running in the November 30 parliamentary elections, which didn’t have so elaborate campaigns as the other election runners analyzed so far, for different reasons. Tomorrow’s analysis will center on the election campaigns of the independent candidates.
The Party “Democracy at Home” (PDA)
This party of the political right didn’t have a promotional campaign as the other parties. It rather tried to promote itself by a kind of civic activism. For example, the party’s leader Vasile Costiuc appeared in news conferences alongside different people whose problems exemplified the social and economic problems that must be solved by the politicians and ruling parties. It is an interesting approach adopted by a party that is close to the people and concerned about the daily problems of particular persons and it should be even praised for this. The problem is that by itself, this tactic does not bring many votes. The Party “Democracy at Home” needed a wider campaign by which it would capitalize on these close relations with the people and their problems. Now it looks more like a civic organization than a political party and this is not necessarily something bad, but it is not an advantage in the electoral race.
The “Democratic Action” Party (PAD)
The PAD is another party of the right that didn’t manage to assert itself on the political arena even if it has a more famous leader Mihai Godea and greater resources than the PDA. The launch of the PAD was intensely covered by the media as Mihai Godea left Vlad Filat’s Liberal Democratic Party and many accused him of betrayal and of selling himself to Plahotniuc. However, prior to this moment, Mihai Godea had a good performance in Parliament and a favorable reputation. Probably for this reason the PAD changed its emblem and included the wording “M.Godea” in it so as to exploit what remained from his once good reputation.
The PAD also launched a street campaign called “Take your blocking holding”. The slogan may look unclear to someone who is not aware of the party’s position and hears it for the first time. The message is that the votes for the PAD will secure seats of lawmakers who will play the same role as a blocking holding in a joint stock company, which is will not allow adopting bad or unfavorable decisions. The campaign can indeed improve the PAD’s visibility in the street and the message is somehow original, different from the slogan “Down with the Oligarchs”, which is so fashionable now. The problem is that as in the case of the PDA, this tactic is insufficient for persuading the people to give their votes for you. This campaign would have worked well within a wider campaign in which more human, if not financial resources would have been invested.
The Green Ecologist Party (PVE)
The Green Ecologist Party is a special party that focuses on a concrete area. But the green ecology in Moldova didn’t yet take sufficiently powerful roots. The environmental conscience of the Moldovans is yet rather rudimentary compared with that in some Western states and the state of the parks after the May 1 barbecues is a conclusive example. For a party as the PVE to be successful, the population must have a higher level of ecological education, but this condition cannot be fulfilled in Moldova’s case. Only afterward can such a specialized party convince the voters that the environment problem is a sufficiently important one for voting for it. In fact, any party can include an ecological dimension in its platform, while a platform centering exclusively on this dimension can be regarded as an incomplete one.
The Centrist Union (UCM)
The Centrist Union of Moldova was a project that aimed at confirming the proverb ‘where two are fighting, the third wins’ and to provide a neural platform, not involved in the left-right division. However, the UCM didn’t manage to get a place on the political arena: all the active voters are already spread on the left-right dimension, while for the passive voters the UCM wasn’t sufficiently convincing to make them active.
Recently, the new leader of the party Dan Petrache announced that the party will undergo reformation. For a start, the party wants to be a party of young and new people. The new emblem is the word “DIFFERENT”, which expresses rather clearly the UCM’s intention to promote oneself as an alternative party, different from the other election runners. It is a small trick that allows using a call with two meanings: “Vote differently!”. But the emblem must be yet more than a slogan. The emblem must offer identity to the party and must last in time, while the slogan changes and must always be adjusted contextually.
At the same time, the party turned into a right, pro-European party and Dan Petrache announced that after the elections it will also change its name: a Centrist Union of the right does not make much sense. To become more visible, the new UCM recruited actor Sergiu Voloc, who is rather popular among young people. On the one hand, the UCM needed something that would have taken it out of anonymity. On the other hand, the recruitment of personalities from the field of culture is an old and outdated tactic yet. Though the UCM will most probably not cause a surprise in this Sunday’s elections, it remains an interesting party until the reformation process is completed and we will see the outcome.
The Party for Nation and Country (PpNT)
The PpNT is a social-liberal party. It is hard for the ordinary voters to understand such hybrids between right liberalism and socialism or left social-democracy. The party probably banks more on its name, which emanates ethnic, civic and political patriotism. At the same time, it is a name that reveals also traditionalism by the chosen words and the formulation.
However, this is everything by which this party can attract votes. The party’s leader Nicolae Utica is not sufficiently famous; the slogan “Wake up, Moldova” is not original and not appropriate for the current electoral context, while the emblem is not impressive either. It is a white stork on a light blue background under which there is written the abbreviation PpNT with a rather unusual font. Most of the other election runners have wordings written on the emblem with bold letters, which are very clear and visible and give the visual impression of vigor and force, but the PpNT chose a font with rounded letters that give the impression of informal text. As many other election runners, this party has only one ingredient for asserting itself, but does not have the other ingredients and the recipe.
Note: This analysis refers strictly to the publicity of the election runners and does not aim to assess their quality. The bad products can have good publicity and vice versa, as the good products can have good publicity. Earlier, IPN made an analisys of the electoral publicity of the Democratic Party, which was published on November 6, of the Christian Democratic People’s Party, which was published on November 7, of the Liberal Democratic Party, which was published on November 10, of the Liberal Reformist Party, which was published on November 11, of the People’s Force Party, which was published on November 12, of the People’s Movement “Antimafie”, which was published on November 13, of the National Liberal Party, which was published on November 17, of the Party of Socialists, which was published on November 18, of the People’s Party, which was published on November 19, of the Communist Party, which was published on Noevmebr 21, of the Liberal Party, which was published on November 22, of the Party “Renastere” and the Communist Reformist Party, which was published on November 24, of the Party “Patria”, which was published on November 25, and of the Electoral Bloc “Moldova’s Choice – the Customs Union” and the Party “Moldova’s Patriots”, which was published on November 26.
Eugen Muravschi, IPN
