To accept the change in the country, the Moldovan voters need objective information that would be oriented not to the Easter or to the West, but to the citizen, the development level, salary, earnings, Arcadie Barbăroșie, director of the Institute for Public Policy (IPP), which has conducted the Public Opinion Barometer during 21 years, said in IPN’s public debate “Polls and snap elections, electorate and change”.
He noted that the people should be informed who and how helped the country. “How much money the EU, Russia, Ukraine and others provided; how many roads were repaired and with what money. This is necessary for the people to form an opinion before voting. There are several sources of information that are objective, others are nonobjective, while the third are orientated to the East or to the West and do not inform. Therefore, the citizens cannot be informed as the informed citizens take correct decisions when a voting list is put in front of them,” stated Arcadie Barbăroșie.
He noted the education level of the people should be taken into account. “If the education level is high, the citizens inform themselves. They have access to websites, the Internet, information sources, the radio and TV and can make a judgment themselves. If they are not educated, they choose the TV channel that is the most popular in their region, which is aimed at those citizens and aims to influence them to make a particular choice,” stated the IPP director.
Arcadie Barbăroșie noted that there are persons in Moldova who look back to the past, to Russia and do not yet see what going to Russia or to the EU mean, why they should vote for the EU, because this is the county’s future. They will definitely vote for the Party of Socialists. These persons have a lower level of education, are from rural areas and are older. There are many voters with a high level of education who will support this party or the orientation to Russia, but they do not form the main pool of this party. The younger persons who are better educated will orient themselves to the European Union. The members of Russian and Ukrainian ethnic groups vote primarily for the Party of Socialists.
The IPP director said those who choose to study at universities later choose to go to the West. They already know where they will study and who they will vote for. They no longer vote without thinking. Those who remained in the country are less developed, less educated. Many of those who study at national universities do not complete the studies and go to work in other areas.
The public debate “Polls and snap elections, electorate and change” is the 175th installment of the project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is implemented by IPN News Agency. The project is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
