{"id":443754,"date":"2017-04-18T09:31:39","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T09:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=443754"},"modified":"2017-04-18T09:31:39","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T09:31:39","slug":"maia-sandu-electoral-system-not-changed-democratic-party-will-probably-not-enter-next-parliament-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/maia-sandu-electoral-system-not-changed-democratic-party-will-probably-not-enter-next-parliament-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Maia Sandu: If the electoral system is not changed, the Democratic Party will probably not enter next Parliament \/INTERVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 6<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Moldova, at its teenage years, the uninominal vote system, fight with the corruption, future plans. This is what we discussed with the leader of the Action and Solidarity Party, Maia Sandu.<\/p>\n

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  • Mrs. Maia Sandu, how would you describe the Republic of Moldova in its\u00a0current state?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    – The Republic of Moldova is a country in\u00a0the teenage years and thus, tries to find its own path of development. We are a young democracy and “democracy” is probably too much said, but at least we are trying to find the path of freedom, to build institutions that, in time, would become strong and sustainable to ensure and preserve those citizen liberties. Obviously, we want to have a prosperous country, but we are far from there.<\/p>\n

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    • Teenage means revolt. Is Moldova a rebel or it can wait more?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      – In some circumstances, it is rebel. We see that there is still a spirit that tries to oppose some desires of politicians to impose control and more autocracy, but it is not sufficiently rebel. Many of our rebel people, instead of trying to ask for change, decided to go abroad. I don’t necessarily say that it is a bad thing, but this critical mass of people that would be able to put pressure for a change for better is way too small, smaller than if these people were home.<\/p>\n

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      • If we continue the teenage theme, who are the parents of this teenager?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        – It is hard to tell who are the parents of this teenager. I believe that we cannot wait to have parents to take care of us. Those who can help us will help only when they see that we are serious and that we want this change. I am talking about countries and governments that understand how important is it for the entire world to develop harmoniously, because we are in an on-going process of globalization. Every country can cause crises that could become regional or even international ones. That is why it is important for the entire world to prosper. From this perspective, there are more governments that understand how important it is to help each other. At the same time, nobody will come to force us and tell us how things are done, what path we should take. We can be helped only when we can prove that we really want this thing, and we did not. When I\u00a0say “we”, I am referring to a sufficiently big number of people and especially, those from the government, because they take decisions for us.<\/p>\n

        Candu should start this fight from the PD ministers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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        • The fight against corruption is an usual topic in Moldova, but the investigation journalists are convinced that corruption is at home at high levels. If the government is not an example, who can we learn from?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          – When the corruption is spread everywhere, it is hard to go against the system. The things can be changed through two methods. One is the power of example and education, two is the system of sanctioning. Now, the education system regards the responsibility of the parents and school. We should tell this straight: we see no results from neither of them. The sanctioning system comes from the law enforcement institutions. In order to overturn this situation, we need to start fighting against the big corruption. When we will prove that the people, involved in the big corruption acts, with dramatic impact over the society, are punished, then we will be credible, in order to start the fight against corruption at all levels.<\/p>\n

          We started the fight against corruption in education, but when we were conducting that fight, one billion US dollars disappeared from the banking system. Obviously, in that situation, we fully lost our credibility. How can you ask disappointed people, that get non-formal payments because they cannot survive with the very small salary offered by the state, when such disgusting things happen around the leadership of the country?<\/p>\n

          We start with sanctioning those involved in major cases of corruption, save money from these actions, increase the salaries and ask all levels to respect the laws, then we sanction those involved in small corruption.<\/p>\n

          On the educational dimension, we should persevere, each of us at his own place, parent, professor, to make a good example for the children. Only when he sees that the parents, the professors do not commit these kind of things, only then (he\/she) would understand that (he\/she) must do the same.<\/p>\n

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          • If we talk about corruption, one remembers the draft law proposed by the Parliament speaker Andrian Candu on the implementation of lunch tickets as a solution against the non-formal salaries that caused an exchange of remarks between you and mr. Candu…<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            In my opinion, when you have a corrupt government, the best is to keep a simple system. As Americans say- Keep it simple. The moment you start to invent all kinds of elements like these tickets, a new opportunity for corruption opens. In general, I find it ridiculous that the Parliament speaker thinks these lunch tickets are a method of fighting with the non-formal salaries. Are we supposed to\u00a0understand that, from now on, they will pay the salaries through lunch tickets, medicine tickets transport tickets, cinema tickets? Is this the solution for fighting the non-formal salaries? If we are serious about this, I would recommend Candu to start this fight from the ministers of the Democratic Party. Because, even during the time I was in the Government, there were rumors that some PD ministers received their salaries in envelopes.<\/p>\n

            “Adopt a vote” offline<\/h2>\n
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            • One month ago, a part of the Facebook group “Adopt a vote”, most of it from diaspora, met in Venice, where they discussed the major problems the Republic of Moldova faces and adopted a resolution…<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              I was enormously happy to learn that the Moldovan diaspora started to organize itself. I think it is the first attempt of the diaspora to speak in one voice. Let’s not forget that, for several years, it has economically supported the Republic of Moldova. We can’t imagine our GDP without the remittances our Moldovan diaspora sends. The letters that the Government sends to the International Monetary Fund always contain the complaint that the remittances are reducing-\u00a0“this means that we need compensations from the foreign donors”<\/em>. If the diaspora is so important and the money it sends are comparable to the money the foreign donors provide, why can’t the diaspora ask for conditions n exchange for the enormous support it gives to the development of the country? Finally, the authorities got this conditionality message. Let’s see how they fulfill this promise.<\/p>\n

              Where did Maia Sandu disappear<\/h2>\n
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              • A lot of people consider that you disappeared from the light of cameras, that you are passive, that you easily gave up after the announcement of the elections results. What is happening?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                I disappeared from the light of cameras, because the cameras are not upon us. The situation was different in the campaign. Yes, we took a break after the Presidential elections, because the efforts were huge. During this campaign, we had only volunteers and no employees. These people worked 24\/24 for free, for several months, and had to search for a job after this. People cannot work for free. We should be realists and understand how things are.<\/p>\n

                In the winter months, we took a tour through the rural places, we concentrated on the party construction, on identifying people to represent us in each locality. We were not seen, because we did not take the television with us in each village. We’ve been to 30-40 villages, in the weekend, because the locals were busy. We will continue this furthermore- building the party, consolidating the team. We want to raise local and national level leaders and this implies a lot of training.<\/p>\n

                We were less visible in the dialogue on national level. Now we are back and we are trying to send other messages, but, unfortunately, the government does not take them in account. It is more of a monologue.<\/p>\n

                “We are ready for every situation”<\/h2>\n
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                • In case the uninominal electoral system is passed, will you manage to consolidate your team, to make it strong and visible until the next elections? So far, PAS is only Maia Sandu. At least, this is what one can see.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  I want to remind you that PAS is a young party, Maia Sandu is in the public eye since 2012. PAS turns one year in May 2017 and it is natural that it is less known that me. That is why we have the objective to make the image transfer from me to the party, to identify, help and promote all PAS leaders from the regions. We are ready for every situation, but we are conscious that the electoral system change, as the Democratic Party wants it, opens new opportunities for the government, especially for PD, to defraud the elections. We oppose this change, because it doesn’t have the goal to consolidate the democratic process or the increase in representation. It has one objective- to allow them to manipulate and maintain the power. If the electoral system is not changed, the Democratic Party will probably not enter the next Parliament. Thus, we set a goal to become a strong party and obviously be ready for every situation.<\/p>\n

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                  • During your visits in the regions, did you find the potential candidates from PAS for the possible single-member district elections?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                    We are not searching for potential deputies. We are searching for people to participate in the political process and to help us in building a party. We have a correct policy towards the promotion of people in positions, within the party and in public\u00a0offices. We have a register of the candidates, where people register, where there are certain rules for applying for a public position. This is the register of party members, but this doesn’t mean that we are not open for those outside PAS. Our policy is to promote the best people in public positions. Each candidate submits a CV, then we get some recommendations and then we launch a contest. First of all, they need to prove their integrity, we then measure their professionalism and measure their contribution to the party activities. Depending on these criteria, that we will publish soon because the mechanism is still under discussion, we will choose people that deserve to be candidates for some positions.<\/p>\n

                    Author: Ana Gherciu<\/strong><\/p>\n

                    VIDEO (Romanian- English subtitles under development):<\/p>\n