Press release
After poll on the day of presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova

The WatchDog.md Community, the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) and an initiative group of civic activists initiated the holding of an exit-poll on the day of the presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova, of November 1.

The project is financed by the European Endowment for Democracy and the Embassy of the Netherlands in the Republic of Moldova. The poll methodology and its conduct will be ensured by the CBS-Research Center of Sociological Investigations and Marketing.

Given the differences in the answer collection method, so as to avoid any speculations and interpretations, the authors decided to give the poll the generic name ”After Poll”.

The poll will be carried out on November 1, between 12:30pm and 9:30pm, among citizens aged 18 and up with the right to vote, who are in the Republic of Moldova.

Given the pandemic, the poll will be conducted by phone. The respondents will be chosen at random. The margin of sampling error will not exceed 1.55%.

It is planned that about 4,000 persons will be surveyed as part of the exit-poll. They will be asked if they voted and who they voted for. The respondents will also specify the age, sex, communication language and area of residence (town or village). Questions about the name and surname, address and other personal data cannot be put.

For the convenience of respondents, the questions are prepared in Romanian and also in Russian. The organizers of the poll specify that they will not save respondents’ phone numbers in any database.

Arcadie Barbăroșie, executive director of IPP: “For the first time the exit-poll was held in the Republic of Moldova at the parliamentary elections of 2005. It is a democratic exercise that is well-known in our country. We encourage the people not to be afraid of the poll and to answer three-four simple questions.”

Vasile Cantarji, CBS-Research: “The task of exit-polls is to control and confirm the election results, offering also an empirical material to analysts for broad analysis of the situation. During the pandemic, the method of conducting the pol will be different from the classical version. The communication with voters will not take place at the exit of the polling station, but by phone. This will actually be a post-votum poll.”

Victor Ciobanu, independent analyst: “We initiated this project in order to prevent authorities’ attempts to falsify the elections using administrative resources. They say the elections will be fair and correct, but there are reasons not to believe them.”

Ștefan Gligor, independent analyst: “After the elections of 2016 and 2019, trust in the CEC and other state bodies involved in the organization of elections declined owing to the proven facts of vote buying, change of the rules of the game during the game, foreign intervention, use of the mass media to manipulate public opinion. The exit-poll is an instrument that will help us to see the real outcome of elections.”

Valeriu Pașa, WatchDog.md: “There are signs that, as in the local elections in Chisinau, the holding of exit-polls funded with obscure financing will be monopolized. Consequently, we decided to obtain financing from open and safe sources. Our project is not aimed at or against a candidate. We do not pursue the goal of triggering mass protests. It is an effort to support democratic, free elections and acknowledgement. If the elections do not end after the first round of voting, we will conduct a poll on the day of the runoffs too.”

The results of the after poll will be announced on November 1 in two news conferences: at 9:30pm – preliminary, at 10pm - final.

The news conference will be held in the Red Hall of the Summit Events Conference Center. The journalists will have access as of 7:30pm.

The distribution of the materials about the after poll and the informational support for journalists will be ensured by IPN News Agency (website ipn.md; contact email address – v.vasilica@info-prim.md; contact phone number – 069151089).

“After Poll 2020” project implementation action group

Reference to the presentation of the Exit-Poll 2020 project:
Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYuPYimxUo4
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/398940653535061/videos/1501385280049968

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