Members of the Youth Leader’s Network from the Transnistrian region organized on 28 March 2009, in the High School “Alexandru cel Bun”, city Bender, an informing activity on electoral education – “The Right to vote and be elected. The importance of elections”. The seminar was attended by 20 young people, students of XI and XII forms, who are citizens of the Republic of Moldova and have the right to vote..
The activity was carried out in order to inform young people about the organization of the parliamentary elections on April 5, 2009, when they will exercise their right to vote for the first time. Young people were trained regarding the correct procedures for exercising this right, they learned about the importance of this experience and rules to be considered in the polling stations for their locality.
Theoretical elements of the activity – the legal exposures from the electoral, current legislation contributed to the understanding of the substance of the right to vote. Participants enjoyed the opportunity to see through graphs, how a polling station looks and what is the procedure to be followed for the proper exercise of their right to vote.
The activity’s developed structure allowed young people to maintain discussions and debates on different topics, ideas and opinions regarding the importance of exercising the right to vote and fairness of conducting elections in Transnistrian region. Also, they mentioned the phenomenon of misinformation of the population, youth’s indifference and lack of interest, low level of civic culture of citizenship, fact that influences the attitude of the voters towards the importance and the need to exercise their right to vote. Based on information that they gained during the informing activity, pupils tried to answer from their own point of view the question “why is it important to vote?”, answers led to contradictory attitudes, but the main point found is that young people are convinced to go to vote. Participants were impressed by the discussions from which they learned useful things about what is necessary for a citizen with the right to elect and to be elected.
Activity was carried out by members of the Network of Young Leaders from Transnistrian region.
Cazac Ala, Tatiana Breahni.
The Network of Young Leaders from Transnistrian region was established by Promo-LEX Association within the project “Strengthening youth initiative groups from Transnistrian region, project financially supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Kiev through the MatraKAP Program.