The idea of fielding a common candidate for the presidential elections was consciously disseminated in society so as to see the reactions of the political parties and public opinion. This is because the opposition parties consider that the country is in a profound crisis. At the same time, the representatives of the ruling parties promote the idea that all the parties must field their own candidates for the October 30 presidential elections and intend to do so themselves. Also, the ruling parties implant the idea that the Republic of Moldova is already in a state of normality, stated the executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT) Igor Botan.
In the public debate entitled “Common candidate of the right in the presidential elections: necessity and possibility, advantages and disadvantages”, which is the 57th installment of the series “Developing political culture by public debates”, the expert said the parties of the center-right insistently speak about a common candidate. Their interest in identifying a common candidate yields the message that the situation in the country is abnormal.
“The public interest is for the political parties in this crisis situation to renounce the personal interests and choose a common candidate for the common good and for overcoming the crisis,” stated Igor Botan.
Speaking about the idea of identifying a common candidate for President by parties of the center-right and the left, Igor Botan said this idea is a nice one, but can hardly be implemented. The future President does not have sufficient levers to dissolve Parliament and provoke early legislative elections.
As to the fielding of a common candidate by the parties of the center-right, the project’s permanent expert said this candidate must be a famous person with access to the mass media and to financial resources.
He described the idea of a candidate on behalf of civil society as a very nice and utopian one. Such a candidate lacks resources and it is very hard to motivate the parties to support a person from outside them.
Igor Botan considers the unionist parties have two variants in the presidential elections – to support the candidate of the power or to support the common candidate of the parties of the center-right.
According to him, the unionist parties cannot have their own candidate because they will get into a trap. “According to Article 79, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, the winner of the elections will swear to engage all the power and skillfulness to ensure the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Moldova. I cannot imagine a unionist candidate taking such an oath,” stated Igor Botan.
The public debate “Common candidate of the right in the presidential elections: necessity and possibility, advantages and disadvantages” is the 57th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are organized with the assistance of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
