Sunday, November 15, is the second round of the elections day in Moldova. What will Moldovans do on Sunday, since many still believe it is not an important day.

The coming Sunday is going to be a day of self-awareness and self-inquiry. Moldovan people need to face a significant question: what do we do with our lives and how do we pass this electoral exam, which will impact our lives and our community’s existence for the next four years, or even longer? Our social and moral comfort will depend on whether we will go to the voting polls in great numbers. So, let us mobilize and vote, without being paid for it, despite all threats and intimidations.

Why should Moldovan citizens mobilize and vote in great numbers? The time has come to say Moldova does not like the current governance, and we cannot bear it anymore. We do not want a president who lives a parallel life, absolutely different from the people’s. We don’t want to be patient anymore because poverty makes us sick. The law is selective, while theft and lies are currently governing Moldova.

People living in Moldova are unhappy with life. According to the latest opinion polls, over 80 percent of the surveyed say they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, compared to 15 percent, who admit that they are satisfied and delighted with the way they live.

What do miserable Moldovans do? Those who can no longer endure fly abroad. They leave their homes and go in search of a different life in other realms, thanks to the Europeans who granted Moldova visa-free in 2014 (and this is because Voronin had left and Dodon had not yet come to power).  Having settled abroad, the Diaspora helps those who remained at home to survive. Moldova receives over two million euros annually, which is about a third of the state budget.

The other unhappy Moldovans chose to shut themselves up in their lair and repress their emotions. They are no longer interested in anything but their own needs, and they don’t want to hear about anyone or anything, especially during elections. Although not the most effective, this is how they protest against the system. They are the people who, through humiliation and impoverishment, live in despair. They do not even realize that they have stopped being citizens and have become a population and only depersonalized numbers. This is the most significant “achievement” of President Igor Dodon in the last four years. He teamed up with his Socialists and other left-wing governments before him, which means foreign or against Moldova’s citizens’ national interest. In almost 30 years, Moldova has not had any right-winged president in power. 

Moldovan citizens have a chance to fix the situation on November 15 by changing president Igor Dodon with candidate Maia Sandu. Why Maia Sandu and not Igor Dodon?

In four years, Dodon compromised himself and the Institution of Presidency through lies, hypocrisy, and theft. Former communist president of Moldova Vladimir Voronin, who brought Igor Dodon into politics, admits that he was the most terrific liar and the most hypocritical president. 

Dodon promises again, as four years ago, to reduce the number of deputies from 101 to 61 in the Moldovan Parliament. Why not raise the issue of dissolving the presidential institution, which he turned into a “club of interests,” giving positions to his family members. Dodon reshuffled the Supreme Security Council, changed the Prosecutor General, the Anticorruption Prosecutor, the head of the Information and Security Service. He brought current puppet Prime Minister Chicu to the government, has changed two ministers of internal affairs, only to rule in the case of the stolen billion and to bring fugitive oligarch Plahotniuc back to Moldova in “handcuffs.”Now that the mandate is over, where’s the billion, and where is the controversial businessman Plahotniuc? 

Why Maia Sandu and not Igor Dodon? Because it was the electorate’s choice in the first round of elections; because Dodon is not an alternative to Maia Sandu; because life with Dodon will not be different from what it is now. Four more years with Dodon would mean wasting another four years.

The Americans did choose a change because what they had didn’t satisfy them anymore.

Let’s put a period where there is no more room for a comma. On November 15, we should do what the Americans did. We should all vote. Let us put Dodon’s lies aside and choose, both at home and abroad. 

If we want to draw a line between what was until November 15, we have to go to the polls on Sunday. We should vote in great numbers. We should announce general mobilization, as on the front, because the fight between lies and truth has never been easy.

Let us learn how to mobilize from Diaspora members—leaving their homes early in the morning,  driving long distances, alone or with their children, reaching for the nearest polling stations. They do it because they care about Moldova. Do we, Moldovans from home, care less?