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.
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Oleg Cernei
Oleg Cernei is an experienced politician who covered the path from one of the leaders of the student protests of the 1990s to the post of Chisinau councilor of the Our Moldova Alliance and then of the Liberal Party. However, in his career he didn’t achieve the desired success and didn’t get the desired posts. In his campaign, Cernei exploits this lack of success to a certain extent. His slogan is “Close to the people and to their problems”, which tacitly implies a position between the ordinary people and the politicians, with Cernei presenting himself as a candidate who didn’t achieve much success among the latter mainly because he was near the first.
In his first video clip, we see scenes of student protests, with a young Cernei, with the candidate himself explaining his position: “for ordinary people”, “supporter of those on low incomes”, and “not involved in political bargains”, while the truthfulness of these assertions is substantiated by scenes showing Cernei appearing near ordinary people and in the posts he held until now. He promises to be the ‘eyes and voice’ of the people in Parliament. This promise is repeated in the other videos too. It’s an interesting approach, similar in a way to the ‘blocking holding’ of Mihai Godea, as the candidate does not promise a doctrinaire program, but rather honest representation given that most of the voters consider they lack such representation.
In the second and third video clips, Oleg Cernei is helped by people’s artist Nicolae Glib and the Head of Moldova’s First Parliament Alexandru Mosanu. The message uttered by the two and their presence do not make the videos convincing. These two personalities are probably less known among the young people, but they can convince some of the voters who have been more nostalgic after the 1990s or some of the intellectuals to vote for Cernei. In the fourth video, Cernei develops a part of the message from the first video: “I didn’t buy a place on the party list”, which is an insinuation that the places on the Liberal Party’s list of candidates were bought and an explanation why he runs as an independent so as to avoid accusations of betrayal or political opportunism. “I’m an independent candidate and will be an independent lawmaker”. It is a good promise that looks credible to a certain extent given that it is made by Cernei. The problem is that Oleg Cernei does not have a sufficiently powerful public image that could back his promises. For an independent, Cernei has a rather good campaign and the fact that he has four videos is impressive given that some of the parties had no video clip at all. The risk is that some may wonder where Cernei took money for such a campaign.
Oleg Brega
An independent candidate who is probably more famous than some of the parties, Oleg Brega is a civic activist with a controversial reputation. For many, he is a passionate defender of the human rights, who is ready to fight even physically for his value. For others, he is a promoter or a brawler who sticks his nose into other people’s business. Brega is rather popular among young people, who are actually his main target. Those who remember him in the program “Public Enemy” could contribute some votes. Brega chose an original emblem that represents him well as a public figure: on a bike, with the megaphone in his hand, with the wording “COURAGE” under him, which is a reference to the projects for which he is known – Curaj.net and Curaj.tv – and to a trait that many politicians do not have. The standard criticism about politicians is that they are cowards and thieves, while Brega promises to be honest and courageous.
The campaign could have been yet more active and visible, even if he is an independent candidate without resources. He could have exploited more creatively the online environment or could have staged some ingenious street events. His video clip also lacks imagination. The idea that his poor campaign proves somehow the independence and honesty of Brega is groundless. An example of how to compete in the elections without presenting oneself as a ‘politician’ (in the classical meaning of the word, with a negative connotation) was given by Klaus Iohannis, who promised a different kind of politics. Surely, it would be absurd to compare the campaigns of the two given the different financial possibilities, but Brega could have borrowed the conception and the message from Iohannis. Another disadvantage is the fact that some of his sympathizers do not believe that he has chances to enter Parliament and will thus vote for contenders who have such chances. This way of thinking seriously diminishes the chances of the extra-parliamentary contenders and is fueled by the multiple polls made public. In this respect, Brega would definitely have bigger chances in a world without surveys.
Valeriu Plesca
Valeriu Plesca is an interesting independent candidate because he ran also in the parliamentary elections of 2010 and in the local elections of 2011. The failures in those campaigns didn’t yet reduce his élan and the former minister of defense is ready to run again. However, Plesca, despite the financial and intuitional resources he has, does not seem to be as involved in the election campaign as other contenders. The impression he gives is that of routine candidacy: he may be lucky once. His electoral video lacks originality. Plesca is shown from different angle while uttering his more moderate and more modest message “down with corruption!”, which is delivered by almost all the opposition parties and even by a ruling party – the Liberal Reformist Party – in this campaign. This niche is overfull and, even if Plesca argues that he is professional and skillful, he cannot persuade the people like Usatyi, Mocanu or even Hadarca.
Anatolie Doga
The ex-president of the Chisinau Appeals Court Anatolie Doga is probably the least known contender in the current election campaign. Regretfully, his election campaign does not include street events, online communication, videos or posters that we could analyze in this article.
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 and of the Party “Democracy at Home”, the “Democratic Action” Party, the Green Ecologist Party, the Centrist Union, and theParty for Nation and Country, which was published on November 27.
