OVER 47% MOLDOVANS STAND FOR JOINING EU – BAROMETER

If a referendum on Moldova’s accession to the European Union were held here next Sunday, 47.2% citizens would vote for this and 28.5% -- against the accession. However, over 24% citizens are either uncertain or would not go to polling stations at all, as per the findings of the Public Opinion Barometer poll carried out recently by the CBS-AXA Center for Sociological Researches and Marketing by request of the Institute of Public Policies (IPP).

The pollsters have established also that if an analogous referendum were held on Moldova’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union [of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, EAES], then 42.7% people would vote for such accession, 30.4% -- against it, and 25.2% are uncertain or will not take part in such a plebiscite.

The respondents were also offered to choose between the two Unions, and 38.1% respondents preferred to join the European Union and 32.6% -- the Eurasian Union.

Institute of Public Policies (IPP) Director Arcadie Barbarosie said at the research results presentation today that the high percent of uncertain voters is an indication that political forces must work harder to explain the bro0ad population masses the advantages of integration vectors.

Igor Botan, Director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT), remarked that in the latest 5 opinion polls carried out by different organizations, in 3 polls dominated the idea of Moldova’s accession to the European Union.

The November Barometer showed also that a majority of Moldova citizens are categorically against Moldova’s unification with Romania – 56.2% would vote against, and only 21.8% -- for such unification.

Also, more than a half of Moldovans, namely 51%, would vote against the country’s joining NATO, and only 15.9% would vote for this.

The Barometer has shown that television is remaining the main source of information for Moldova citizens: 46% of them receive information mostly from their TV sets.

However, the proportion of Internet users is growing, and now 23.6% citizens of Moldova use the Internet as their main source of information. Radio is favored for this purpose by less than 5% respondents, and the same proportion of people receive main information from conversations with the members of their families.

The Public Opinion Barometer poll was carried out on November 18 through December 5. The pollsters are saying the error should not be in the excess of ±2.9%.