Cimislia's art college
On 22 March 2009, the project “Eu votez pentru ca…” made stop in the district capital Cimislia, home to about 13,000 people in the south of the Republic of Moldova. It was the first time that the two election platforms were set up by students of two different schools, that is, the Liceu Teoretic Ion Creanga and the Liceu Teoretic Mihai Eminescu. To carry out the mock election event, neutral ground was chosen so that the city’s art college served as venue.
Entering the art college, from the very first beginning it became obvious that the character of Cimislia’s mock election event would differ significantly from other mock election events that had been carried out within the framework of the civic education programme “Eu votez pentru ca…”. It was more likely to be a competition between the two partaking high schools, attended by the respective administrations and a considerable amount of students, than an event dedicated to raise voter participation and democratic awareness. And this was exactly what happened.
Election poster Pro Viata
The election platform or “party” – how both teams called themselves – “Pro Viata” (“Pro Life”), set up by students from L. T. Ion Creanga, suggested a campaign against alcohol and cigarettes, especially against its consumption by minors, and advocated measures against the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to underage persons. “Edera”, the team founded by students of L. T. Mihai Eminescu, proposed an ecological project, that is, the construction of a waste recycle station in the city of Cimislia.
Already from most of the propaganda material you could derive that the two election platforms strongly identified with their respective schools. Since most members of the audience wore buttons or flags in order to express their support of one or the other team, it was easy to identify from which school they were. The local trainer’s quite long and thoroughly considered opening speech about democracy, political awareness, the difference
Election poster Edera
between making a choice and voting and suchlike was almost to no avail since the majority of the audience had already decided which team they would vote for.
Nevertheless, the two teams were very well prepared and had elaborated strong arguments, materials, and slideshows. “Pro Viata” even performed a social play about the unpleasant consequences of alcohol and cigarettes for minors and showed a video about a march against these drugs, which they had organised prior to the mock election event.
In spite of the factual presentations, the following public debate was quite polemic, full of mutual offences and provocations. Many questions from the floor were not answered in an objective way but considered as provocation and therefore answered with a counter question or provocation, mostly accompanied by the cheering of the respective supporters group. Even the school administrations got very involved in this competition and when the moment had come to start the voting procedure a big dispute began. Teachers and
Enthusiastic supporters
students from L.T. Ion Creanga insisted that only people who presented their I.D. and thereby proved that they were already 18 years old should be allowed to vote, while the project organisers decided that all present persons were allowed to vote since it was not a “real” election but an exercise and therefore everyone should take part. Apparently, L. T. Ion Creanga considered this an unfair decision and feared to be defeated what induced teachers and even the school director to encourage their students to vote several times. Since there were no electoral lists and no election commission, this was an easy thing to do and after a short time there were much more voting bulletins inside the box than people in the hall.
Consequently, the result was irrelevant and would probably have increased the dispute so that the votes remained uncounted. All in all, the mock election event in Cimislia left behind a quite negative impression despite the quite well elaborated presentations and the big efforts both teams had apparently made beforehand. Unfortunately, it turned out to be rather an occasion to show the students that elections are not objective and that it is appropriate to cheat – an impression that was even reinforced by the inappropriate behaviour of some teachers – than to raise their democratic awareness and to educate future voters.
