The first deputy chairman of the PDM Vlad Plahotniuc became the politician who appears most often in the electoral news. He surpassed the leader of the PLDM Vlad Filat and the leader of the PDM Marian Lupu. The three appeared 31, 30 and, respectively, 29 times in the news items broadcast by the TV channels in the period between November 9 and 15. The data were made public while presenting the fourth media monitoring report produced by the Association of Independent Press (API), the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and the Association of Electronic Press (APEL) within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.
By the number of appearances in news bulletins, the three politicians are followed by the leader of the PSRM Igor Dodon, with 26 appearances, the leader of the PCRM Vladimir Voronin (16), the leader of the PL Mihai Ghimpu (16) and first deputy chairman of the PL Dorin Chirtoacă (16), the PCRM’s candidate Eduard Musuc (15) and the head of the list of candidates of the Party “Patria” Renato Usatyi (15) as well as and Oleg Cernei (14). In a positive context, Vlad Plahotniuc appeared 11 times, while Vlad Filat – six times. In a negative light, Vlad Plahotniuc was presented 12 times, Vlad Filat – 8 times, and Igor Dodon – 8 times.
Among state functionaries, Prime Minister Iurie Leanca came first with 47 appearances, followed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Andrian Candu (29) and Head of Parliament Igor Corman (27). Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, who topped the rankings the previous week, now took the fourth position with 20 appearances, being followed by Minister of the Interior Dorin Recean (15), President Nicolae Timofti (15), and Minister of Defense Valeriu Troenco (14). In a positive context, there were presented mainly Andrian Candu (12), Igor Corman (9) and Iurie Leanca (8), while in a negative context – mostly Dorin Chirtoaca (10)
As to parties, the PDM is a leader with 201 appearances, followed by the PLDM (119), the PCRM (104), the PL (80), the PSRM (64), the PLR (57), the PPP (37), the PPRM (26), and the PpNT (16). The PDM and PLDM appeared generally in a positive context. The PDM is also the party that appeared most often in a negative context, followed by the PSRM, PLDM and PCRM.
The monitoring was performed within a project financed by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Embassy in Moldova and East-Europe Foundation with the funds allocated by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA).
