In February 2005 parliamentary elections are due in the Republic of Moldova. The Parliament is the highest and most important political body in the constitutional system of Moldova. The Parliament elects the President, forms the Government and appoints judges at the Supreme Court of Justice.

Yet the last available opinion polls data show that a high percentage of Moldovan citizens do not have a clear understanding of the importance of the Parliament and of its interaction with other public authorities. Hence, a very low level of trust in the Parliament (39 %). For young people (18-29 years old) this level is the lowest as against all other age categories (only 24%). The most mistrusted democratic institutions in the Republic of Moldova are the political parties: only 19 per cent of Moldovan citizens trust them and only 16 per cent of people in the age category 18-29 years. As a result of such a perception of the political institutions and processes, if tomorrow were parliamentary elections in Moldova, only 61 per cent of citizens would turn to vote (and 59 per cent of those of 18-29 years old).

From the above-mentioned and keeping in mind that the parliamentary election represent the main possibility for citizens to exercise their political rights, G-2002 are planning some activities for January – March period in order to increase the turnout of young people in the parliamentary elections due at 6 March 2005:

I. One of the main parts of the project is an ambitious survey among young people to find out what they think about parliamentary elections and political parties of Moldova. The main question to be answered is why so many young people do not vote, thus failing to participate in the political decision-making process. The need for such a survey is obvious. Each participant in the survey will be individually interviewed by one of the trainers, who will receive training in conducting such interviews during the Opening Conference. It is planned to interview, in 24-31 January of 2005, around 1,000 young people, university students, school pupils and young professionals.

II. A competition for election-related promotional materials (posters, flyers, leaflets, stickers) among young people will be announced. The selected proposals will be used in the campaign launched by G-2002 in places frequently visited by young people (universities, colleges, campus)

III. On the day of elections, members of G-2002, trainers and other young people trained under the project, will organise in high schools simulated votes in order to introduce in electoral process of those young people that didn’t have the right to vote due to their age.