The sic! project has published a new explainer article, accompanied by a motion graphic video, to throw light on the notion of gerrymandering, a process which becomes possible in Moldova, too, with the adoption of the mixed electoral system, IPN.



Narrator text:

“So what is gerrymandering, anyway? The name comes from a guy named Gerry and a salamander (see the article for more), but this matters less. In a nutshell, gerrymandering is the practice of cheating in elections by drawing the borders of constituencies to favor or disadvantage a party or a demographic group.

With the adoption of the mixed electoral system, this practice becomes possible in Moldova as well. Basically, there are two main tricks used by those who engage in gerrymandering: cracking and packing.

In the former case, a certain group of voters can be divided and distributed into several constituencies to prevent them from electing their own candidate. Thus, the group is ‘cracked’.

In the latter case, a certain group of voters can be concentrated into a single constituency to prevent them from tilting the scales in the neighboring constituencies.


For example, while in this hypothetical case the spades are the majority, they get packed into two constituencies. Thus, their influence in the three other constituencies is reduced. And the diamonds, a minority, win. In this hypothetical parliament, 40 percent of the population would get three representatives, leaving the remaining 60 percent with only two.

Gerrymandering comes with a lot of wasted votes: if you vote for the spades, but the diamonds win, your vote is wasted. When there is only one round of voting, the trick is even more efficient, because you can’t redistribute your vote in a second round.

Usually, this tool is used by the parties that control the process of drawing the electoral map to favor their own candidates.

To avoid gerrymandering, it is crucial to have objective rules and a transparent process of drawing electoral boundaries. And also an impartial electoral body. Find more on sic.md”

The full article is available here (Romanian).

Sic! is a fact-checking, promise-tracking and explainer project implemented by IPN with the support of the Soros Foundation-Moldova and the Black Sea Trust.