The option ‘against all’ should be introduced in the ballot for the October 30 presidential elections. Only then society will be able to see the real state of affairs and peoples’ expectations of the current political class, deputy head of the Platform for Gender Equality Alina Andronache stated in the electoral public debate “Specific features of the presidential elections 2016: vision of NGOs and experts”, which forms part of the series of electoral public debates “What kind of President is society looking for? What society does the President need?”, held by IPN News Agency.
According to Alina Andronache, a part of the voters go to the polls regardless of who the candidates are because they have this responsibility transmitted from generation to generation. The young people in Moldova are not passive, but are disappointed and insufficiently informed. That’s why they are not active in elections.
She noted that the mass media play an important role in informing the voters and in forming opinions about the candidates running for President. “My expectations are that the mass media should provoke the candidates to take part in debates where the people would be able to put questions and discuss issues, while the candidates should not come with prepared speeches. I think that only when the people are informed about each candidate, will they vote consciously,” stated Alina Andronache.
According to her, the people in villages are not only afraid to make a choice by their vote, but also do not have time to inform themselves about each candidate apart. Furthermore, in rural areas they vote for the representative of the party that rules at local level. The people have the tendency to vote so because they have great confidence in what the mayor or the agricultural leader says rather than someone foreign.
As to the diaspora voters, Alina Andronache said the people there are active, but their voting possibilities are reduced compared with those of the people from the country. They must analyze the candidate from the perspective of the professional skills, not of the family or social status and gender. “The assertion that if the President is a woman, it will be better is not justified because when we plead for gender equality at the level of decision-making, we plead for analyzing any person from the perspective of their professional skills,” she stated.
The September 28 public debate is the 63rd installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are organized by IPN News Agency with the assistance of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”.