If tomorrow elections were held for the general mayor of Chisinau, 18.9% of the voters would vote for Andrei Năstase, the candidate of ACUM Electoral Bloc, and 13.6% would vote for Ion Ceban, the candidate of the Socialist Party. For the former mayor, the liberal Dorin Chirtoaca would vote 8.2% of the respondents, and for the independent candidate Ruslan Codreanu, former interim mayor - 5.9%. Other candidates would accumulate less than 2% of the votes. 24.1% of the respondents are undecided, 11.5% have refused to say for whom they would vote, and 9% say they will not go to the polls. The data are part of a survey presented on Wednesday, September 25, by the WatcDog.MD Community and CBS AXA. Only Chisinau inhabitants with the right to vote participated in the survey.
At an IPN press conference, CBS-AXA sociologist Vasile Cantarji mentioned that the survey was conducted on a sample of 502 Chisinau inhabitants over18 years of age. The sample is representative for the adult population of Chisinau, with a maximum error of + 4.4%. The survey was conducted by a mixed method - by telephone 60% and on-site 40%. The data have been collected during the period September 9-23, which according to the sociologist, is quite extensive. Otherwise, this period included the most amorphous stage of the electoral process. For the most part, during this time, the candidates were collecting signatures and registering, being less concerned with promoting electoral strategies.
Asked if they would participate in the elections on October 20, 54.6% of the respondents answered that they would go to the polls by all means, while 20.5% of the respondents would go to the polls if nothing came up.
WatchDog expert Valeriu Pasa has mentioned that the survey also includes the profile of the voters of the race leaders Andrei Năstase and Ion Ceban. "The male population is clearly in favour of Andrei Nastase. The young people in absolute majority declare that they would vote for Andrei Nastase, but let's not forget that the intention to vote is also the lowest among them. Romanian speakers are clearly in favour of Andrei Nastase, just as Russian speakers are clearly in favour of Ion Ceban. This discrepancy has not disappeared anywhere. As for the academic background of voters, we see a preference for Ion Ceban among those with incomplete secondary education and a clearly higher rating of Andrei Nastase among those with higher education. And this division based on the social and ethnic profile of voters, between what we conventionally call right and left is also preserved in these elections,” noted Valeriu Pasa.
In other news, Valeriu Pasa said that during the last campaigns there were published data from so-called opinion polls, but in fact they aimed at promoting one candidate or another, by manipulating the public opinion. However, WatchDog and CBS-AXA set out to present more studies to improve the quality and increase the honesty degree of the campaign by combating manipulation. Until the October 20 elections, three more polls are to be presented. Concurrently, media monitoring reports will be presented regarding the election campaign coverage.
