A webpage focusing on the presidential elections of November 1, 2020 was launched on the website alegeri.md. This contains sections about the candidates, their incomes and expenses, polls, election monitoring, challenges, etc. The users will be able to obtain exhaustive information so as to form an impression about the candidates and to ultimately take a decision as to who to vote for in the upcoming elections. The webpage was created by the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT as part of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.
In a news conference at IPN, the Coalition’s secretary Elena Prohnitski said the Coalition is a permanent and benevolent entity consisting of 34 public organizations working in the municipality of Chisinau and in regions, with expertise in the electoral field. “The objective, equidistant, unbiased informing of the voters is the key element of a correct electoral process. That’s why in the Coalition we devote special attention to this process,” stated Elena Prohnitski. According to her, as the online sphere is besieged by fake news, the alternative sources of information, such as the portal alegeri.md, which during many years has provided detailed, comprehensive, objective information and presented the electoral processes in a balanced way, are of major importance.
ADEPT executive director Igor Boțan said the webpage is an electoral encyclopedia that provides information about the elections held earlier, such as data about the voter turnout, candidates and results. As regards the November 1 presidential elections, it presents the 13 proposed candidates, the whole process of collecting signatures and other processes.
The information about the eight registered candidates includes data about the date and place of birth, profession, political affiliation, electoral program, property statement and the tax returns submitted earlier. “This information, in general, should offer the general picture of each of the candidates. The citizens can watch TV programs, can meet with candidates, but the portal alegeri.md provides this information aggregately so that the citizens can form a general impression and then decide who to vote for,” stated Igor Boțan.
The section about opinion polls contains all the surveys carried out since May by established sociological companies of Moldova. “We know that the candidates’ attitude to opinion polls is different. A series of candidates a priori declared that they do not trust opinion polls. However, it is an instrument used by sociologists and by candidates too,” noted Igor Boțan.
The section about election monitoring includes national monitoring reports, monitoring by the mass media and international monitoring. “There is one more section that we consider important. We maintained it, but this time we presented it in a different way. This is “chronicle of elections,” said the ADEPT director, noting it contains important and relevant events that preceded the election campaign, starting with May 2020.
A special section is about voting abroad. This presents the polling places established abroad, the country, locality and address and the number of pre-registered voters.
