Some 70% of the parties registered in the Republic of Moldova stipulated their geopolitical orientation in their statutory documents. Thirty parties of 60 have a clause about the European integration in their statutes. It is expected that any type of elections turns geopolitical. From this perspective, the political vote at the November 5 general local elections was given for parties that stipulated the integration into the EU in their statutory documents, the permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in a public debate titled “Nonlocal stakes of local elections”.
According to the expert, the parliamentary opposition, both the PCRM and the PSRM, in the statutory documents stipulate that they want balanced relations between the East and the West. But there are five extraparliamentary parties that openly plead for integration into the Eurasian Economic Union. Approximately 30 parties, mainly extraparliamentary ones, don’t refer somehow to the foreign policy course. “The geopolitical component cannot be excluded from the election process as it is enshrined in the statutory documents of political parties. Surely, this aspect cannot be neglected in the local elections when the main political players a priori state their support for a particular political course,” stated Igor Boțan.
He noted that the phenomenon of migration of mayors is worrisome, but this slowed down in Moldova somehow. This migration is due to the modest resources possessed by mayor’s offices. The mayors migrate either because they are corrupted or they deliberately change their affiliation so as to later solve the problems experienced in the locality.
According to the expert, the political potential of parties should be assessed by the results of the elections to district councils as the votes for these are votes for party lists and the citizens here detach themselves from the local-level preferences. These results show the political support enjoyed by political parties. The current local elections are a precise benchmark for the continuation of the political competition for the parties that are in power and those that are in the opposition.
The expert noted that 63% of the citizens support political parties that promote the European integration of the Republic of Moldova. “In particular, the European course is represented through three columns – the ruling party, the extraparliamentary pro-European parties and the pro-European parties that would like to substitute the current government in the process of integrating into the EU,” said Igor Boțan. He believes the opposition tries to oust the government and enjoys the support of one fourth of the citizens, which so important, and it is normal for the opposition to hyperbolize the shortcomings and to draw a picture of the gloomy future under the current government.
The public debate entitled “Nonlocal stakes of local elections” was the 294th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
