When opinion polls are carried out, the fact that about 1 million Moldovans are outside the country’s borders, while several hundred thousands are in the Transnistrian region should be taken into account as their opinion is not always reflected in polls, Igor Boțan, the standing expert of IPN’s project, stated in the public debate “Polls and snap elections, electorate and change” that was staged by IPN News Agency.
Igor Boțan related that most of the 1 million Moldovans who went abroad are younger than 40. The older are the voters, the more conservative are they. They wait for social support from the state and plead for rises in pensions and this category votes mainly for the Socialists.
“Recently, the Party of Socialists adopted a new program that embraces a conservative ideology. I ask the PSRM to publish it. What’s the sense of keeping it secret? The party suddenly changed its ideology, but keeps the program secret. This program holds interest for sociologists, political researchers and voters,” stated the expert.
Igor Boțan noted that the West seems to be more attractive to the young people as an information revolution occurred there during the past 40 years and most of the novelties related to IT come from the West.
According to the expert, the results of sociological polls have a major influence on the decision of particular parties. In the recent past, at least four sociological surveys were presented to the public and the PSRM after the poll of February 11 changed suddenly its opinion and started to oppose snap elections
Igor Boțan said the citizens could not state a clear opinion about transitional governments at opinion polls as the candidates for Prime Minister hadn’t presented their programs when the polls were conducted. The snap elections would be more useful if there was no pandemic and economic crisis in Moldova and also a crisis in the relations with the foreign partners.
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.
