Independent candidates have very little chance of entering Parliament. The opinion belongs to Whatchdog community expert Pavel Horea and was expressed in the public debate “what are independent candidates capable of? What do we voters need?“, organized by IPN news agency. According to the expert, the main obstacle to independent candidates is the electoral threshold.
At the parliamentary elections on September 28, four independent candidates are participating: Andrei Nastase, Olesea Stamate, Victoria Sanduta, and Tatiana Cretu.
“The chances of independent candidates making it to Parliament are slim. The 2% threshold is quite high. In terms of votes, that would be over 30 thousand votes. Which is quite a lot. Even some political formations do not achieve this score,” explained Pavel Horea.
According to the expert, another disadvantage of independent candidates is the lack of financial resources and the impossibility of massive promotion. “Another factor is the visibility and notoriety of independent candidates. Returning to financial resources, without financial means, you can’t promote yourself in the media or efficiently promote yourself online. Now, even the online field is monetized and without money, you can’t succeed in promoting yourself,” the community expert from WatchDog pointed out.
The expert also draws attention to the pragmatism of voters, who prefer to vote for political parties or blocs considered stronger. “There is also the pragmatism of the voter, who, seeing from polls that a candidate has little chance of getting into Parliament, opts to give his vote to a formation with chances. The theory of the useful vote is promoted. There is much discussion in the public space that a vote for a candidate who has no chance is a lost vote. In fact, it is not so, these votes are redistributed,” said Pavel Horea.
The public debate on the topic “Why are independent candidates capable? Why do we, the voters, need them?” is the third edition in the series of electoral information debates dedicated to the parliamentary elections of September 28. The IPN press agency is conducting this series of debates with the support of the Soros Foundation Moldova.
