“A large part of the voters, especially those of an older age, still live with the illusion that a President who could bring things in order will be elected and this would have the powers enjoyed by the Heads of State until 2000. Moreover, they think that the President chosen by the whole people will be able to do what the Presidents of other states that are not far away from us can do, without realizing that a President elected by the people, with the powers given to this by the current Constitution, will not be able to do much in Moldova without the consent of other branches of power, programs coordinator at the Center “Contact” Vasile Cioaric stated 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.
Vasile Cioaric said such a scenario is possible, but the future President must be very powerful and be an active player on the political arena of Moldova, who can one way or another to satisfy these demands of the voters.
“Besides frustration, disappointment and poverty, I would add an illusory hope that if the people elect the Head of State themselves, many things, if not all, will change in Moldova,” said Vasile Cioaric.
He also said that together with other colleagues from civil society, he tried to convince the people to take part in elections, but now has doubts. “Let’s imagine that the people go in a large number to vote and make an alternative choice and then see that their ‘choice’ can do nothing to change the situation. We will be blamed as the people will say that we urged them to vote. I think the behavior of the candidates running in elections will be decisive in the remaining period. We will see how they persuade the people,” stated Vasile Cioaric.
According to him, the voters must inform themselves, but civil society should help them. “We do not manage to take information to the voters and this is not our duty in fact, but we can tell them where truthful information can be found and how they can inform themselves from two-three sources. But this is hard because our people are lazy in this regard. We should teach the people to look for information, to analyze things and to discern,” said Vasile Cioaric.
As to the idea of fielding a common candidate, Vasile Cioaric said this is a request of the people who consider that the parties are many in number and should combine forces, but it’s not know how these should ally. The people will vote a powerful person who can bring things in order, but it’s not yet known who this person will be.
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”.
