Exit poll to be conducted at 200 polling station across Moldova

Exit polls will be held at 200 polling stations across Moldova on April 5. The project called “Exit Poll 2009” was presented on Monday, March 30, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The poll guarantees the voters' anonymity, so we expect maximum sincerity from the respondents,” said Viorel Cibotaru, the director of the European Institute of Political Studies, which is part of the project implementing team. The people having voted will be asked questions about their age, education and nationality. Then the citizen will get a questionnaire to mark the contestant he/she has voted for. The filled in ballot will be cast into a special box. Arcadie Barbarosie, the director of the Public Policies Institute, says the project pursues to institute procedures of free and fair elections in Moldova. According to him, immediately after 21.00, the first estimations concerning the parliamentary elections will stat being announced, as the final results will be made at 22.00. The director of the IMAS Marketing and Polls Institute, Doru Petruti, has said the survey will not be carried out on people voting abroad or using the mobile ballot box. According to Ion Jigau, an executive with CBS AXA sociological company, 18-20 thousand respondents are expected to be covered by the poll, which will have an error margin of under 1%. The exit pollsters especially call on the electoral contestants and media not to negatively influence the behavior of potential interviewees by propagating any suspicions as to the poll's results. They say it's but a scientific research. The project “For more transparent and fairer elections: Exit Poll 2009” is financially supported by the Eurasia Foundation from resources granted by the Swedish SIDA and USAID, as part of the electoral actions supported by Coalition 2009 – joining a group of NGOs.