IPN interview: The Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) is taking a step ahead by a unique announcement, with real potential to significantly influence Moldovan politics and society’s altitude to it. Details about this innovation are provided below, in an IPN interview with the leader of the PDM, Marian Lupu.
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- Mister Marian Lupu, you made today a surprising announcement. Even if the idea was floating in the air, the PDM actually launched a campaign within which the people will propose candidates for the party’s list for the November 30 legislative elections. Why do you do this? I think a lot of explanations about this process will be asked from you?

- It will be very well if explanations are required as this is an absolute novelty for Moldovan politics and it must be promoted. We indeed thought up a campaign to promote and explain what the Democratic Party wants to do – to openly elect the candidates for seats of MP – so that everyone will know what and how by September 28, when it is the voting day. The truth is that the political system, the administrative system and the political class in Moldova necessitate reforms. Politics must serve the people and come close to them and their needs. The politicians should not stay in their offices all day long and then in luxury restaurants in the evening. The people no longer bear to see the senior officials living separately from them, even if this can be only an impression. This impression must be changed. We decided to give the people the power to decide as namely the people want changes in politics. Moldova needs them. It needs a fresh breath in this road to a prosperous and civilized way of life, which we managed to commence over the last few years. We must all understand that we will be unable to make progress with a closed political system where the people are practically invited to endorse what the leaders of parties decide, within a circle of 10-20 people.

We thought a lot in the PDM before taking this step. But, as the party’s leader who is responsible for the organization of the process of selecting candidates for the parliamentary list, I decided we should ask the people whom they want to see in Parliament. The PDM opens the doors of politics. Yes, it is for the first time in Moldova that a political party offers the people the chance to choose the candidates for its election list. The list of candidates is no longer compiled at the party’s head office, but through elections, by the votes of our members and sympathizers. Do we want changes in Moldovan politics? If yes, each of us should start by giving an example. The people will thus not believe coordinated statements and empty promises.

- How did your colleagues from the PDM’s administration reacted and how could the members and sympathizers of the party react when this proposal is made public? 

- I’m convinced that this approach will be welcomed, even with enthusiasm, by the members of our party and by the numerous sympathizers we have all over Moldova. I say this based on the discussions I had with colleagues from the party, who approved of the idea. We also had heated debates as it is a complicated exercise from organizational viewpoint. But I think we found optimal solutions to all the difficulties. I liked a lot the courage to risk and to take an unprecedented step shown by my colleagues from the administration of the Democratic Party.

We renounced the classical method of holding consultations within the Standing Bureau, seeking proposals from the administrative bodies of the party’s local organizations and compiling a list of 101 candidates based on them, which was usually approved at the PDM’s National Council. This was the old political tactic, used behind closed doors and with the back at the people and at the tens of thousands of colleagues from all over the country.

We decided to make a change and this means involving the people in this project of the PDM, to see what they have to say and to take their opinion into account. All the people of Moldova, including the members and non-members of the PDM, can vote in these open elections, if they have good intentions of course. This is why we called them open elections not internal elections as some colleagues suggested.

- When will these open elections take place and where? Whom will the people elect?

- The voting will take place on September 28, 2014, at the PDM’s local offices all over Moldova. We will also enable the Moldovan diaspora to take part in them, in the countries where there are many Moldovans. We agreed a precise list of polling places, the regulations for holding the open elections and an electoral commission of the PDM that will be headed by Deputy Head of Parliament Sergiu Sarbu. As I said, it is a difficult task and we made everything possible for this exercise not to cost dear as one party is unable to set up polling places in every settlement, as the state does in official elections with a serious budget and staff.

As to the voting, it will be an open procedure. We will tell no one whom to vote. There will be no candidates written in the ballots. Each of the participants will receive by a ballot where they will write the names of five persons whom they consider appropriate for the party’s list for the November 30 parliamentary elections. We will hold open elections, which means that all the citizens of Moldova can take part in them. The voting is also open as every voter can write the names of the people they want to see on the party’s list.

- Don’t you take risks by such an approach?

- I think those who do not want to change things and remain faithful to the old models take risks actually. They risk losing contact with the people and representing no one in fact, which is the most serious risk in politics.

We want to open to the people a political system that has been closed for about 20 years, since the uninominal voting system for Parliament was annulled. There are risks, but they can be taken only by the powerful ones, who can propose new solutions and can really do something. We assume the risk that our gesture can be described in different ways, but we know for sure that we take a step towards the democratization of the political life. We are interested not in what the politicians who fear they will lose the monopoly on politics and the commentators paid by these politicians will say, but in how the people of Moldova will respond to this call to become involved and to exercise their rights because the power belongs to them. If the people show that they are ready to become involved in the public and political life, the PDM offers them this possibility and we will be successful.

I’m sure that the benefits will be much grater than the difficulties. Firstly, we will have an election list compiled based on the choice of the people, members and sympathizers of the PDM. Secondly, we will be able to meet a lot of people, to discuss their problems with them and to think about solutions to these problems. Thirdly, we will give an example of novelty and reform in a political system that should have been changed long ago.

I must admit that there was dissatisfaction inside the PDM when our initiatives concerning the introduction of the uninominal voting system and the new standards of transparency in financing parties and election campaigns were rejected. We accepted then a compromise – the joint system for the parliamentary elections – but this system was also later annulled. That’s why the organization of the open election of the PDM’s candidates for seats of MP shows that we are consistent in the reforms we promote. We are not joking and not playing. We want the people to choose people, not only party lists. If they wanted to preserve the lists, the people will choose the people on the list of the Democratic Party. We are yet to struggle further, in the future legislature, for the introduction of the uninominal or at least the joint voting system.

- Do you expect members of other parties to take part in these elections, from the PLDM or PCRM for example?

- It’s an interesting question. If the members of other parties want to vote, we will not hinder them on condition that they do it with good faith and sincerely. Those who will vote can be members of the PDM, sympathizers of the party, first of all, as well as politically unaffiliated people and members of other parties, if they want to. The fact that they take part in our open elections does not oblige them to become members of the PDM. They can take something good from us and can more insistently support the reforms within the parties of which they form part.

We want to offer the people who are not members of the PDM, but who are interested in the country’s future and the November parliamentary elections the right to express themselves. There are many people who do not become involved because they do not believe in politics and in the fact that their votes count. We want to show them that politics is opening to them, to all the people of Moldova. It will be so the next years, not only within the PDM. We simply didn’t have the courage to step first on the road that goes to the people.

- What will these open elections ultimately mean for the PDM?

- I think these open elections will be a significant success for the PDM by their essence and by the fact that we will have intense communication with everyone during them. This communication already started as we aroused your interest, didn’t we? I have confidence in the common sense and inelegance of the members and sympathizers of the PDM and I’m convinced that we will have, as a result, the most honest and the best list of candidates.

I call on all the people of Moldova to follow this project of the Democratic Party, to take an active part in the meetings staged in districts, to be active through the Internet as we will have a page devoted to the open elections on the PDM’s website, and to be near us in the discussions on Moldova’s future.

Valeriu Vasilică, IPN