Almost 8,000 Moldovan school and university students eligible to vote are studying in Romania. The data were collected within a census taken by the Federation of Associations of Bessarabians of Romania (FABR) in 14 university centers. Besides university students, the census covered the Moldovan eleventh and twelfth graders receiving scholarships from the Romanian state. The goal of the census was to create a database for motivating the young people to take part in the November 30 elections within the campaign “I vote!”, IPN reports.
FABR chairman Ion Cobyshenko said that the census counted 7,837 young people, 1,235 of whom in Bucharest, 1,195 in Cluj-Napoca, 1,562 in Iasi and 721 in Galati. “The census is aimed at creating a database at local and central levels for the FABR. This database will help us to localize the Bessarabian students in Romania so as to convince them to go to the polls on November 30 and so that they, for their part, convince their relatives and friends of the importance of these elections for Moldova,” he stated.
Ion Cobyshenko also said that the second stage of the campaign “I vote!” will consist of a number of motivation and awareness-raising activities aimed at persuading the young people to take part in elections. There will be set up six working groups on regions: Iasi-Suceava-Bacau, Galati-Constanta, Bucharest-Ploiesti, Cluj-Alba-Oradea, Craiova-Perosani, and Brasov-Sibiu. The FABR asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova and the Central Election Commission to open a polling place in Craiova because there are about 500 students in southwestern Romania, who will have to go to Bucharest to vote. But no answer came yet.
According to the FABR chairman, they held negotiations with the Ministry of Transport of Romania and agreed that the Bessarabian young people will benefit from free train tickets on the election day to go to the polling place. In the 2010 elections, turnout among the Bessarabian young people was of about 70%. This year the figure is expected to exceed 90%.
Vlad Gira, head of the Organization of Bessarabian Students of Constanta, said that activities to encourage participation in elections were and will be yet staged in Moldova as well.
Eleven polling places will be set up in Romania for the November 30 parliamentary elections of Moldova. Two of them will be established in Bucharest, two in Iasi, and by one in Galati, Timisoara, Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Bacau, and Suceava.
