Average Chisinau Resident in front of electoral lists. Info-Prim Neo analysis, Part III

The representative voter of the capital found some time to examine the electoral lists today also. The news agency Info-Prim Neo continues to follow the ordinary Chisinau resident, who, as far as it is known, manifests a certain interest in elections, possess a certain volume of relevant information, but does not have time and possibility of making additional checks and looking for explanations. [Can AMN recover from anemia?] The list of Moldova Noastra Alliance Party (AMN), under no. 3, suggests possible changes of conduct, but, judging by the experience accumulated, out voter is not sure that this will happen. He saw that the leader of the party tops the list and does not know what to believe yet. For sure, “the first” will not return to the City Hall from the Parliament after elections and the gesture should be interpreted as a sign for the supporters that he is ready for new confrontations with the power, fact that is worth being noted. The power, to be good, should have a good opposition. At the same time, the respective move could harm the party. First of all, the voter does not want to enter the same water twice and secondly, there could be many “friends” that would not forgive him for leaving the City Hall and would be afraid of a possible increase in his influence on it. Number 2 on the list is also a known name, but which began to be forgotten. What did he do so far? How much political will does he have to return and make himself noticed if, as it seems, he is also constrained by the suspended criminal cases. Someone said he is a good team player and back player, and a good party in the Council is first of all a good team... The next two names were also in the list of the previous AMN. One of them was not only written in the list. At every meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) he made statements, interpellations, brought accusations, usually against the police that kept the CMC under control. The journalists liked to work with him, not all of them of course. Only four of the 56 candidates represented AMN in the previous Council. This could be a sign of recovery because this time the list does not include major and extremely different ‘generals’. Maybe the Alliance learned the lesson or maybe the ‘generals’ found other ‘generalissimos’ whom they would listen to. Last time, the ‘generals’ were the first to abandon the ship of the Moldova Noastra Alliance Party. Though the AMN list includes managers of smaller companies, almost all administer private financial resources and a few administer public resources. Yet, there is something else that can add weight to a list and an election campaign. Among the candidates are ten persons that administer important human resources, firstly from the housing sector. The ordinary Chisinau resident could recall the ample campaign launched by former mayor Vasile Ursu against the administrators of the dwelling fund. He could have been right and everything he did was on his own initiative. Or maybe somebody suggested him what to do... The ordinary voter looks through the AMN list again. He wants to find the author or authors of the party’s electoral promises, which somebody gave him in the street in printed version. It seems to be Number 5 because only a woman, who is also a journalist, knows how to persuade people. Shortly, clearly and to everyone’s taste. On the other hand, not all the women can be trusted and not all the journalists write what they think. Or maybe she is not the author either. The Chisinau resident remains indecisive, also because he has not seen yet the next electoral list. [Who does the Democrat Party address to?] The electoral list of the Democrat Party (PD) brings out several rather inspired moves. The extent to which these moves will prove to be efficient depends on the political intuition of their authors and the degree of trust expressed by the voter – first of all, by the “average” one. First in the list comes the person who also runs for Mayor General. The “average” Chisinau resident has noticed that this person is more intensively promoted for the second position than for the first, and even more intensively than the entire team of councillors. The effect might turn out to be beneficial to the party, as the voter is inclined to elect persons rather than teams or electoral programmes, but it likewise might result in a representation of PD in the Council as poor as in the previous Council, or maybe even poorer. It has been generally known that the party had a single representative in CMC for a period of 4 years, but, for some half of his term in office, he didn’t make himself noticed by any means. Judging by the campaign for mayor, PD’s message is stylish and well-structured. It is quite attractive for young people and reveals the party’s concerns for youth and renewal. However, young people are not quite the most disciplined voters, a phenomenon confirmed by the previous experiences. It seems that other categories of voters are less “courted”, which displeases the “average” Chisinau resident. On the eve of the election campaign, PD enlisted 2 important pieces that, apparently, are totally different. The enrolment of the first one, actually no.5 in the list, enjoyed quite a lot of media coverage. It is about a personality who, in experts’ opinion, has qualities rarely possessed by politicians, especially in combination – proficiency, honesty and uprightness. Yet the problem of this candidate, now “inherited” by PD too, is the lack of political victories for a long period of time. The voter as a rule prefers winners, mainly because this frees him of doubts and eases his choice. The second one is placed right on the second position of the list and may be considered a valuable find of the party. Practically every party would wish to have a personality of such a calibre who made a name for himself both in the country and in Europe, especially in the European judicial system. On the one hand, it is surprising how this person accepted the path of a political career that, most of the time, brings disadvantages to one’s reputation rather than advantages. And that is the main problem of this candidate. On the other hand, PD might encounter problems later, as previously experienced by another parliamentary party, which had a prominent lawyer in its lists and whom it lost at the cost of reputation damages. No.3 in PD’s list can be considered and, as a matter of fact, is valuable, given his weight in the largest district of Chisinau. But this value can be turned to good account depending on a series of factors, including on the extent to which another party with a similar potential in the same district will allow it. Overall, PD’s list appears before the voter as a rather varied one, but equally heterogeneous and mixed, especially in contrast to other uniform and “combative” lists, which will form the topic of the following parts of the analysis “Average Chisinau Residents in front of electoral lists”. [The previous parts are available in the archives of Info-Prim Neo’s website www.info-prim.md]