If an honest President is chosen in this October’s elections, this can effect changes for the better in Moldova. The Head of State will have the consent of society and can thus oppose bribery attempts and refuse to promulgate particular laws and can replace particular ministers, executive director of the Association of Independent Press (API) Petru Macovei said in the 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?”, staged by IPN News Agency.
According to Petru Macovei, Moldova needs a person who could tell the people the truth and could oppose the oligarchization of the national political system. “Even in the conditions of our Constitution, the President of the Republic of Moldova can make many favorable changes in society, if this is an honest, upright person who cannot be blackmailed by parties given that we have a parliamentary system of government,” he stated.
According to the media, the voters in Moldova are not used to formulate very clear demands for the candidates. Furthermore, the voters are uniformed because they do not know the powers of a Head of State and which of the candidates they should choose depending on their capacities to cope with duties. Poverty is a decisive factor that enables the politicians to speculate on the difficult living conditions.
The API executive director said the efforts of the media outlets to change the situation in society by informing are ineffective. “The mass media are now a false mirror of the government. We must think with our own brain, look for new information and access the sources of information. The people still believe that a President will come to solve their problems. They didn’t get used to making effort themselves. Some of them do nothing to improve their lives,” stated Petru Macovei.
The fact that the education system didn’t contribute to forming active people in Moldova is a problem. The education system faces a number of problems, including as regards the formation of people with civic attitude who would state their opinion when they do not agree and would demand that their rights should be respected.
Petru Macovei considers that this year the people’s vote will be geopolitical. According to him, the people in the Republic of Moldova must not wait for miraculous changes, but must make them themselves. “If we see that things in our country go wrong, we, the voters, must work miracles by elections as the people in other countries did by protesting against corrupt politicians who cannot effect a recovery,” he stated.
The expert noted he would like the office of President to be held by a person with integrity. “This should be a man or a woman who would really fight corruption. I hope on October 31 we will still want to remain in this country, while a part of those who went abroad will want to come back,” said Petru Macovei.
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”.
