Mar 16, 2019
The public libraries from Moldova are electoral education friendly
On the eve of parliamentary elections, the inhabitants of Taxobeni village, Falesti district, became more frequent visitors of the local library. They hurried off to go there not only for borrowing books, but also to participate at the electoral information sessions conducted by the librarian. That helped them become more responsible voters and, on February 24, when the elections took place, they came to the ballot boxes with a greater confidence.
“I organized two information sessions for the inhabitants of Taxobeni, where we talked about the right to vote, the modifications to the electoral system, what does an uninominal constituency means, etc. These discussions were attended by 38 people, who are employees of the local school, kindergarten, post office and mayor’s office. We organized group and individual discussions on electoral topics, also, for the library’s visitors,” says Lilia Dubasari, the head of the local public library, who has been working in this field for 26 years.
If some time ago a library was a place for borrowing books, in the last years this kind of institution is not only gathering people who share the passion for reading. Here the visitors can enrich their knowledge in the electoral field. Libraries strive to become genuine community centers, where different interactive activities are conducted and readers can learn more about democracy, civic education and elections.
The Centre for Continuous Electoral Training (CICDE) of the Central Electoral Commission set out the goal to popularize the idea that every Moldovan citizen, no matter the age, has to learn more about elections and the electoral processes. In this respect, the libraries served as a bridge between the electoral authority and voters.
“Since 2015, our library has been equipped with computers, a printer, a laptop, a projector, and a screen, also, with new furniture. So, it has become a community center, where the beneficiaries come not only to borrow books, but can benefit from all these facilities, can communicate in a non-formal framework,” notes Lilia Dubasari.
The converting of the public libraries into attractive centers for locals took place with the Novateca program, implemented by IREX Moldova, with the financial support of USAID (United States Agency for International Development). The CICDE team decided to put its shoulder to the development of these community centers through a civic education program and by providing informative materials on electoral topics.
Lilia Dubasari offers more details about the activities she organized for the villagers. “I have taken over the methods of providing information by using games, exercises, or on-line questionnaires from the training organized by CICDE. To inform the library’s visitors, I used the leaflets received at the CICDE training, which contain information about the new electoral system. Our library provides the “Career Lab” service and, last June, the beneficiaries of this service participated in a training about youth education. In the first session of the training, the participants learned about the advantages and disadvantages of several political regimes types, so such as: dictatorship, anarchy, and democracy. In the second part, we all together have discussed about the importance of young people’s participation in the Elections Day. Their active involvement can make politicians pay more attention to the youth’s problems. Moreover, the young people from the locality have the opportunity to take the online course, developed by CICDE, “I elect my Parliament in 60 minutes”. This course explains how the parliamentary elections are organized and take place. In my opinion, it is very useful and interactive.“
Between May 21 and June 1, 2018, CICDE organized four BRIDGE training workshops for librarians. The topic of these workshops were “Civic Education and Voters’ Information” and they took place with the support of the UNDP’s project “Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections”.
BRIDGE is an acronym which stands for “Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections”. A BRIDGE course is a professional development program in the elections management field, which has been created by international electoral experts.
Each workshop organized by CICDE lasted two days. Totally 71 people were involved, mostly women, from different localities of the country. Through these workshops, the participants found out about new and effective methods of learning and teaching civic education, as well as tools for informing the visitors that can be used in their daily work.
The BRIDGE accrediting facilitator, Dr. Doina Bordeianu, tells us how these training workshops have been carried out and what impact they had on the beneficiaries.
“During the workshops, I used the approach of “eight steps” of designing, organizing and delivering a civic education program for voters. I have provided to the participants the necessary tools to carry out different civic education activities in their communities. The BRIDGE methodology involves a very interesting combination of theory, practical activities, individually or in group, and experience exchange. The session which energized the participants was that one when they were asked to design a specific civic education material or tool: either a song, a slogan or a poster. Another session, that motivated them and boosted their confidence was when they put in practice their knowledge and developed an one year work plan on civic education.”
Pavel Cabacenco, the CICDE’s director, mentions: “The purpose of the course was to present different ways in which the civic education can be promoted in libraries, and to discuss the particularities of the new electoral system, to encourage the librarians to become promoters of civic education. The libraries, part of the Novateca network, are endowed with equipment and we can benefit from it to promote the E-learning platform on civic education, developed by CICDE with the support of the United Nations Development Programme. A good example is the online course “I elect my Parliament in 60 minutes.” The librarians who participated at the BRIDGE workshops were involved in the piloting this online course and then they came up with some suggestions for improving it. Afterwards, our training’s beneficiaries have organized in their communities various activities using the CICDE’s informational materials, published with UNDP Moldova’s support. In the future, we will continue our collaboration with libraries to disseminate information and promote civic education among voters, regardless of what type of elections we will have.”
Lilia Dubasari notes that besides the information sessions organized for the library’s visitors, she shared her electoral knowledge also with her peer colleagues from the neighboring localities.
“After attending the CICDE’s training workshop in the electoral field, I also trained 17 librarians from Falesti district. Then, each of them organized discussions in group or one-on-one with the citizens from their localities, using informational materials provided by CICDE, such as the “Democracy can be learned” brochure, which were very useful. The young people were interested how can they be involved in the electoral process. I explained how can they participate as observers or operators during the Elections Day. Together we navigated on the Central Electoral Commission officials web pages: www.cec.md, www.verifica.cec.md, www.voteaza.md. The discussions for elderly were focused on such topics as: the mixed electoral system, the uninominal constituency, the electoral candidates, and how many ballots will they receive at the polling station, what types of ID should they have for voting. The topics related to the elections are usually very “sensitive” and a lot of effort has to be done in order to have smooth and efficient discussions. The interactive methods of teaching, which I have learned during the CICDE’s training, have helped me avoid any difficulties in this regard.”
Eva Bounegru, the UNDP’s project manager “Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections”, says: “Civic education promoted at all levels of the society is the most effective way for developing a sustainable democracy in our country. UNDP Moldova supports the initiatives of civic education and voters’ information. We all need to be aware that fair and transparent elections do not only depend on electoral officials, candidates or journalists. They depend on each individual citizen. For that, every citizen needs to obtain a thoroughly electoral knowledge to become a responsible and involved voter. And now, this knowledge can be gained, also, from the libraries.”
The BRIDGE training workshops for librarians were organized within the electoral information and civic education campaign “Democracy can be learned”, conducted by CICDE. The campaign is conducted in the framework of the UNDP Moldova’s project “Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections”, with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Embassy in Chisinau through the Good Governance Fund and the Embassy of Netherlands through the Matra Program.
Text: Irina Gotisan-Sotnic. Photo: CICDE; the Public Library Taxobeni, Falesti district
