Cuizauca's school
On 26 March 2009, the village of Cuizauca, which counts about 2,000 inhabitants, was the last station of the civic education programme “Eu votez pentru ca…”. Since for quite a long time due to a serious illness of the local trainer it was uncertain if this 19th mock election event would take place, we were happy to get the invitation to Cuizauca and to take the bumpy street up to the Rezina district once again.
As was often the case before, the festivity hall of the village’s school served as a venue. Most of the chairs in the unheated hall were occupied by kids that went to the event immediately after their lessons, but also a considerable number of adults made its way to the school building on a Thursday afternoon. For the first time during the course of the project “Eu votez pentru ca…”, both election platforms, set up by students of Cuizauca’s school, identified the same problem as the main problem of their village that needs to be solved: the lack of sport facilities. Indeed, both groups found different solutions to this problem. This fact promised an interesting debate, during which the proposed solutions and their practicability would be in the centre of attention.
"Stadion amenajat pentru sat"
The election platform that operated under the slogan “Stadion amenajat pentru sat” (“Repaired stadium for the village”) proposed, as its slogan implies, to rearrange the sports stadium, that is, to install a new drainage system, to erect a fence in order to prevent animals from grazing on the lawn as it happens at present, and to equip the stadium with benches and suchlike. The second group called “Tinerilor Odihna Activa” (“Active Recreation for the Youth”) suggested fitting out a sports and fitness club in the village. Both groups had elaborated a sound presentation of their projects and prepared facts and arguments in order to convince the electorate.
During the debate, the local trainer time and again felt obliged to whisper the correct answers to
"Tinerilor Odihna Activa"
the respective team members, nevertheless, this seemed to be superfluous since both groups had well elaborated and reflected their projects and found answers to every question. And the audience indeed was very active and had a lot of questions. Certainly, some kids had already made a cross on their voting bulletins before the presentations started but from most of the questions you could derive that the participants tried to find out which project was more realistic, more practicable and therefore the better solution to the village’s problem. For a while, the benefit of the respective projects for pregnant women was discussed, which was one of the most controversial points during the discussion. In the end, it remained uncertain whether pregnant women benefit more from the stadium or the fitness room but other open questions – such as the financing, the admission fees or the attitude of those people whose animals are grazing on the sports field at present towards the new stadium and its fence – could be settled and the electorate was able to make its choice.
Present sports stadium
In the polls, the majority opted for repairing the stadium which was quite comprehensible if you had seen this miserable spot, i.e. stadium, next to the school building populated by ducks, gooses and goats. Apparently, the village administration had already planned to repair the sports field. Indeed, after the ballot Cuizauca’s Mayor promised that both projects would be realised. Was this a hollow election promise prior to Moldova’s Parliamentary Election? For sure, people will take him at his word…
