New programme for strengthening cooperation between parties, electoral bodies and voters launched

The Programme “Stronger Cooperation of Political Parties, Electoral Bodies and Voters” was today launched by the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT. The programme will be implemented in April 2007 – December 2008 with the purpose of improving the communication between political parties and voters, strengthening the capacities of electoral bodies to apply international electoral standards, raising public awareness and increasing citizen participation in political processes in Moldova. Key programme activities will include study visits and a summer school for political party members, a series of publication on political parties in Moldova and issues for the 2009 parliamentary elections, training seminars for electoral body officers. Likewise, ADEPT will maintain a webpage to reflect the evolution of the political party system in Moldova. The transition promoted by the political class has contributed to furthering democracy in the society, but has also led to certain economic shocks, said Igor Botan, director executive of ADEPT, at a roundtable with representatives of political parties and international organisations. According to him, the political competition, along with the poor economic level of the country and the controversial external policies, reduced the confidence in political parties and widened the gap between the civil society and the political class. According to different polls, the Moldovan public opinion indicates that the general public is not interested at all in politics. Moldovans have very little trust in political parties compared to other institutions. Also in the last three years the voting attendance has reduced sharply. Many experts consider this trend as something solvable and possible to stop, and the newly-launched programme could be very helpful in this respect. The Programme “Stronger Cooperation of Political Parties, Electoral Bodies and Voters” is funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).