An exit poll will be carried out on the day of the presidential elections, on November 1, on the initiative of a group of civil society experts. The poll will not be conducted at the exit of polling stations, as unusual, but over the phone.
“We organize this exit poll because, first of all, we want to thwart the intentions to manipulate the results of the elections by the Embassy of Russia. In fact, this voter manipulation campaign already started. It is not welcome, but we cannot do anything. It already began and we will make effort to conduct this democratic exercise, the exit poll, so as to try and prevent the manipulation of the election results,” director of the Institute for Public Policy Arcadie Barbăroșie stated in a news conference at IPN.
“Attempts are made by the Embassy of Russia, and not only by the embassy, but also by the Kremlin, through experts dispatched here to help Mister Dodon to manipulate the election outcome. More exactly, to organize the elections so that the people who go to vote seemingly consciously for Mister Dodon are actually prepared beforehand to vote for Mister Dodon,” stated Arcadie Barbăroșie. He called on the people not to be scared of this exercise and to try and answer the questions put to them. Those who will call voters will not register the phone number or the name of the person who answers the phone.
Sociologist Vasile Cantarji, of CBS Research, noted that several thousand people will be called on the election day and will be asked how they voted. Either this exercise is conducted at the exit of polling stations or by phone, it is designed to control and validate the election results. At the same time, this type of poll offers political analysts and researchers rich empirical material. Such polls ensure a much wider analysis of the already conducted exercise.
The phoned citizens will be asked two main questions: if they voted and who they voted for. They will also be asked several short demographic questions, about gender, age, studies and region. Other data that would allow identifying the respondent will not be collected. The phone number will not be registered so as not to ensure connection with the provided answer. “The request to our voters is to be sincere and receptive as your voting option will not be communicated to someone. It will be included in the percentage that we will later calculate and will present at the end of the day, after the polling places are closed,” stated Vasile Cantarji.
Independent analyst Victor Ciobanu said there is a tradition in Moldova already – the government every time is tempted to rig the elections by misusing the administrative resources. “Now we come with an exit poll in a move to counteract these attempts by the government even if they say that the elections will be free and fair. The government is most interested in this. We know that the temptation to rig is too big and the result is a too great stake for believing them. It is a democratic exercise that is used practically in all the developed countries, in democratic countries, less in the Republic of Moldova,” stated Victor Ciobanu.
Independent expert Ștefan Gligor said that Moldova at each election witnesses an unequal struggle with propaganda, manipulation, social programming, political strategies that work for those who are financed with dirty funds and also represent other states in Moldova. The state institutions responsible for the elections are no longer trusted and doubts started to appear after the elections of 2016 and 2019, where people were brought in an organized way and were bribed to vote in a particular way. Given all these factors, this instrument will enable to determine the real result of the elections.
“WatchDog.MD” expert Valeriu Pașa said there are many indicators that generate concern related to the elections. One of them is an eventual monopoly on what is called an exit poll, as it happened in the local elections in Chisinau, with obscure financing. The exit poll will be carried out on November 1. If runoffs are held on November 15, they will conduct a similar exercise then. The citizens will be contacted by phone between noon and 9:30pm. The results will be published through the agency of the media partner, IPN News Agency.
Two news conferences will be held on November 1. After the closing of polling stations, at 9pm, there will be presented the preliminary results. The final results will be provided in a news conference at 10pm.
The exit poll is financed by the European Endowment for Democracy, which contributed about €101,000. The Embassy of the Netherlands in Moldova co-finances the project that has a total budget of €106,000.
