On Sunday, November 5, 2023, general local elections will be held in the Republic of Moldova in all administrative and territorial units of the country, with the exception of the settlements on the left bank of the Dniester and the municipality of Bendera. At these elections, 898 mayors and 11,058 deputies of local councils will be elected.

In this context, I spoke with several students from the Republic of Moldova in Bucharest to find out, first of all, whether the topic of elections is of interest to young people and whether they will go to exercise their right to vote in the settlements of their homeland on November 5.

I also sought to find out whether young Bessarabians in Bucharest follow the development of their communities, whether they are satisfied with the activities of local administrations, and whether they want changes after Sunday’s elections.

Since the East/West dichotomy persists even at the level of local elections, it was important to understand what set of political values ​​Moldovan students associate with electing a candidate to represent them at the community level.

Another important topic that divided the election campaign in this year’s local elections in the Republic of Moldova was the parliament’s decision to amend the Electoral Code. Thus, people who are “suspected, accused or accused of committing crimes that were mentioned by the Constitutional Court as an argument in the context of the declaration of the unconstitutionality of the political party” of the controversial Moldovan politician Ilan Shor, will not be able to run in the general local elections on November 5.

Therefore, I wanted to know which side of the judicial barricade the Bessarabian students in Bucharest are on. Finally, I wanted to highlight the future plans of the students, wanting to know if they want to return to the Republic of Moldova after graduation, or if they see themselves working in a European capital.

• Read also: Local elections in the Republic of Moldova: Convicted oligarch Shor also registered 3 mayoral candidates, although his party was banned and he is hiding in Israel