Over the last few years, the people have voted not with the heart, but with the mind. In the context of the Europeanization idea, the voters wait for local elected officials of a higher quality, university lecturer Valeriu Sainsus, expert in population and demographic issues, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN.

According to him, even if the pro-European path of the country is intensely promoted, at the local level the people do not necessarily take into account these views of the candidate. “Not the political color, but the person matters and this is a particularity of the local elections. This is visible in the northern districts and also in the southern ones. The people support those who embrace their aspirations. Not the political color, but the deeds of the candidate matter. Most of the citizens don’t feel the comfort coming from the West. I believe the geopolitical course is not really visible in the local elections as the geopolitical aspect is regarded through the angle of the ethnic and identity criteria. In fact, in the context of the geopolitical course, if we overlap the local and the parliamentary elections, they repeat but with different intensity,” said the lecturer.

Valeriu Sainsus noted the local elections are an exercise of political parties before the parliamentary elections. However, the connotations are different.  “In the recent local elections, we had a lot of candidates and political parties. For example, the ballots in Chisinau were about 60 cm long. Even if the ruling party won a reasonable part of the votes, this does not mean that the parliamentary elections will have the same outcome,” said the expert.

He also referred to people’s preferences of the country’s development course and their geopolitical options depending on the areas in which they live. “A large part of the people from the northern districts in the local elections vote under the influence of their recollections as the living conditions in the Soviet times there were much higher than in the central and southern districts. This is probably transmitted from generation to generation and they mostly vote the red color (parties of the left, e.n.)” explained Valeriu Sainsus.  He said that the political culture is not less important and this should be regarded through two angles – of those who are elected and of those who elect.

The public debate entitled “Quality of political class and portrait of voter at local level” was staged by IPN as part of the project “Stimulation of discussion in the mass media about traditional particularities of local elections and the need for Europeanization” that is supported by Soros Foundation Moldova.