A group of activists asked the Central Electoral Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and the government to make sure that the electoral rights of Moldovans settled or working abroad are respected.

Former Minister of Security Anatol Plugaru told a press conference at IPN that he asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the discrimination of Moldovan citizens during the parliamentary elections of 2014, when authorities did not open enough polling stations in Russia. According to him, there are 500,000 Moldovans in Russia, but the government opened only 3 polling stations.

Plugaru criticized “the attempt to continuously discriminate several hundred thousands of Moldovan citizens, most of whom are in Russia”.

Ludmila Lascionova, member of Moldova’s first Parliament, insisted that authorities must react as soon as possible to these calls and solve the problem of voting abroad. “We want to tell them that many things can still be corrected, reoriented in the direction specific to Moldova”, said Lascionova.

Alexandru Popa, head of the Association “Our Motherland – Moldova”, said that the activists’ goal is not to aggravate the situation, but to convince the authorities to stick to democratic values.