US Govt. calls on Moldovans to vote

Moldovan villages will be invaded the upcoming seven days by young activists wearing white t-shirts reading “Hai la vot” (Let's vote – Rom.) A team of 20 activists started from Chisinau on Friday morning to persuade villagers from Orhei district to go to the April 5 ballot, Info-Prim Neo reports. This projects promoting democracy by voting is financed by the US government. Oleg Bursuc, an IREX program coordinator, says: “We hold such activities of electoral education periodically. We try to promote the importance of the vote, to show what the positive results will be if voting consciously and what the risks of voting automatically, or indifferently can be, when the voter does not have sufficient information about candidates.” “We implement program of electoral education not an electoral campaigning program,” the leader of the team has said. The program also offers consulting to political parties in terms of promoting their electoral message to voters. According to Oleg Bursuc, the campaign is driven by some 60 people, separated in teams of 4-8, who will persuade the voters in villages around Balti, Causeni, Comrat, Orhei, Soroca and Ungheni. Oleg Bursuc says they apply different methods to explain the importance of going to vote: they hand out flyers to young voters, they discuss with the older ones, they consult local administrations how to organize the electoral process most efficiently. IREX is an international nonprofit organization providing leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of education, strengthen independent media, and foster pluralistic civil society development.