The UK continues to support inclusive and transparent elections in the Republic of Moldova with a new funding of USD 910,900. The funds are provided by UNDP under the project ‘Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections’ and will allow for extensive democratic education campaigns as well as for promoting participation in elections, especially for under-represented groups.

The British Embassy in Chișinău made the announcement at the conference ‘Strengthening the inclusive electoral system by promoting a democratic electoral culture’, organised on 17 November 2022, which brought together over 100 people, including development partners, representatives of civil society and academia, etc.

‘The UK support under this project is aimed at making political party financing and voter education more transparent and modernising the election process. It is extremely important to increase knowledge about democratic and electoral processes, and thereby increase voter turnout,’ said the UK Ambassador in Chișinău, Steven Fisher.

CICDE Director Dr. Doina Bordeianu mentioned that: ‘The support that the British government is providing through UNDP Moldova is an investment in the democratic future of our country. Investing in education in general is probably among the most sustainable and valuable long-term investments. We appreciate the openness that the British Embassy in Chișinău and our partners at the United Nations Development Programme have towards this topic.  Integrating electoral education into formal education is the right approach – the university curriculum already developed with your support, dear partners, is a logical continuation of the electoral education efforts we are undertaking at pre-school, primary and secondary/high school level.’

The UK has been supporting the project ‘Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections’ since 2017. With its support, several inclusive voter education and electoral information campaigns have been organised.  

‘Democracy can be learned’ is the slogan of the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training. That is why, one of the priority activity areas of the Centre is the civic and electoral education. Over the past years, CICDE has placed emphasis on early electoral training of children and contributed to their development through different education activities, said Marcela Roșca, CICDE trainer and coordinator of civic education programs.

With the support of the UK, a university curriculum on electoral education for Moldovan universities has also been developed.

The conference discussed how CSOs can help boost the participation of under-represented groups in elections, how women can become agents of change in electoral processes, how voter education can increase civic participation, etc.

The additional UK budget will be implemented by March 2024. The project ‘Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections’ is also financially supported by USAID Moldova.