It is only three weeks before the April 5 elections, but the fever of the election campaign is not yet conspicuous. The election debates at public stations started only recently, while the parties that placed election posters on billboards in Chisinau are very few in number. The virtual publicity seems livelier. The Internet election campaign started to develop roots in Moldova too, specialists say. It is yet primitive, while the electorate on this segment continues to remain disinterested. [The politician in an information era] The Moldovan politician is considered expert in making promises, but has yet a lot of things to learn about virtual technology. “Our politicians do not know much about the Internet and how it can be used in the election campaign,” considers Tudor Darie, the director of New Media Group (NMG) – a company that launches and develops new-media products. According to him, the messages in the Internet election campaign do not yet have a clear target because they are not aimed at every social category apart. “The message is for the time being general, like “We are the Change” or “We Promote a European Moldova at Home”. Moreover, Darie says, the initiative to communicate with the Internet using electorate does not belong to the politicians involved in the election race. “We (NMG, e.n.) were the ones that proposed a number of politicians to launch blogs. Some of them accepted, while others did not. But they changed their minds in the last moment and before the election campaign we received too many orders so that we had to reject some of them,” the NMG director said. On the other hand, the competitors running for the seat of MP say that they would do everything possible, but they cannot because the Internet network in Moldova is still rudimentary. “We have the possibility of organizing election campaign over the Internet in towns and maybe in certain district centers. But, unfortunately, the absolute majority of Moldovans do not have access to the Internet,” said Dumitru Braghis, the president of the Social-Democratic Party (PSD). This opinion is shared by the spokesman for the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN), Victor Osipov, who is the seventh on the party’s electoral list. He considers that the Internet in Moldova does not have a large market share as in the Western countries. [Blogs trend and battle for the best site] If we compare the previous election campaigns, in 2005 the Internet was not used as a means for electoral propaganda. Some attempts were made in the local elections of June 2007, but they had a sporadic character and insignificant impact. The Internet in the current campaign is used more efficiently, Tudor Darie said. Most of the parties involved in the election campaign worked out strategies to convince the electorate to vote for them. Asked what is the key element that they use for advertising over the Internet, they say proudly that they renewed the sites of the parties and created blogs for the party leaders. The élan of the politicians is yet lessened by Dumitru Lungu, the director of Webconsulting Agency /www.webconsulting.md/, which devises and promotes websites. He considers that though renewed, the sites of most of the parties need slight or even radical changes. The Communist Party (PCRM), the Liberal Party (PL), the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM) and the AMN can boast with the best designed sites. But the official websites of the PSD, the Centrist Union of Moldova (UCM) and the Ecologist Party “Green Alliance” of Moldova (PEM AVe) have an old design, Dumitru Lungu said. He also said that the site of the Democratic Party (PD) has too bright colors, while of the PPCD is overloaded. If we analyze the websites of the parties running in elections by such criteria as language versions, exterior, navigability, renewal of the information, publication of the electoral program and details about the team, the AMN’ website will top the rankings with 30 out of 35 points possible, Lungu said. It will be followed by the site of the PCRM with two points fewer. The PLDM’s website will obtain 27 points and willbe followed by the PL’s website with 26 points of 35. The website of the PD would get 19 points, of the PSD and PPCD – by 18 points, of the UCM and the Conservator Party – by 17 points. The Labor Union “Patria-Rodina” also has a website, but it is not active. The blogs represent a new breath. The opinions here are different. Tudor Darie says that this is a space where the politicians can express their personal opinions in a less formal style, but the politicians consider that the blog can be used as the party’s official site. “The PLDM leader Vlad Filat is a relevant example. He places press releases on his blog. Other politicians that have blogs place all kinds of statements there. But this type of information should be included in a separate column on the blog,” Darie said. We can also speak about innovatory ideas. The game launched by Serafim Urecheanu – “Fearless Serafica” – had positive feedback from Internet users, the NMG director said. According to him, the game was accessed by very many people. In the end, the Internet users discover in Urecheanu a nice politician different from the other politicians. Victor Osipov is also satisfied with the result. He said that the game is passed from person to person and unloaded even by members of other political parties that enjoy the game in which Urecheanu beats his opponents. Another positive example is the blog of Vitalia Pavlicenco, the former president of the National Liberal Party, who is the second on the list of candidates of the Social-Political Movement “Actiunea Europeana” (MAE). She probably spends too much time to keep her blog, which is active, interesting and dynamic. She answers the questions of the visitors, talks to them and holds debates on the blog’s forum, Tudor Darie said. But the official website of the MAE is not practical, Dumitru Lungu said. [Target electorate] “A blog is efficient for a politician in the communication with three categories of voters. The first category is the young people that have access to the Internet and are interested to a certain extent in the political situation in the country and in elections. There are also employees of different companies and state institutions, who come to work in the morning and access politicians’ blogs to obtain information. The third target group includes the Moldovans that work or study abroad. “For the latter, the Internet is a very important source of information because they do not have another source,” Tudor Darie said. Dumitru Lungu said that the language versions of a party’s website also speak about the involvement of this party in the election campaign and shows where its message is aimed at. For instance, the homepage of the PCRM’s site is in Russian so that it is obvious that this party counts on the Russian speaking voters. The situation is much the same in the case of the Conservator Party and the Spiritual Development Party “Moldova Unita” as not all the sections on their websites are translated into Romanian. On the other hand, the websites of the PDM, MAE, PLDM can be accessed in Romanian only, the director of the consultancy agency said. [Who sets the rules of the game?] The Internet election campaign is not an exception as regards the violations of written and unwritten laws. The Central Election Commission (CEC), which sets the rules for the election campaign, has so far obliged several election contenders to withdraw from all the communication channels video ads launched on the Internet by some of the parties in order to denigrate or make black PR to the opponents. The covering of the election campaign over the Internet is associated with the print media and any published material must be accompanied by the rubric “Elections 2009” and paid from the election fund, the CEC secretary Iurie Ciocan said. [Pessimists, but insistent] Though they say they pay special attention to the election campaign on the Internet, the parties that the polls offer the greatest chances of wining are rather pessimistic as regards the impact of virtual publicity on the voter. Yet, the politicians do not give up so easily. The PDM opened account on the website odnoklassniki.ru, which has over 1 million users all over the world. The PLDM launched a monitoring campaign through direct mailing and is present through banners on different communication sites. The PSD launched a site to promote its anti-crisis electoral program – anticriza.md. The AMN says it is the first to place banners on the largest number of portals (15 in number). The site of the PCRM, which was only a lifeless portal before the campaign, became one of the most accessible and navigable. Is it a sign of change..?