About 4,000 Moldovans with the right to vote living in the Transnistrian region took part in the April 5 elections. The number of Transnistrians that voted dropped twofold compared with the 2005 legislative elections, Info-Prim Neo reports. “This is due to the intimidation, pressure and hysteria of the so-called civil society from Transnistria on the one hand and to the lack of conditions for exercising the right to vote and minimum informing of the Transnistrian residents about the voting procedure, place and conditions on the other hand,” said Monday Ion Manole, the president of Promo-Lex Association, which monitored the electoral process in the region. According to Manole, unimaginable pressure was exerted on the population of the region on the election day. “The militia controlled every artery, every street leading to the so-called control posts. They detained persons, confiscated license numbers of cars and hindered minibuses with voters from going to the polls. Nevertheless, 4,000 persons managed to vote,” Ion Manole said. The obverse of Promo-Lex ascertained that some of the polling places did not provide the necessary voting conditions. The ballot boxes for the voters from Transnistria were in some cases smaller than those at their place of residence, which caused feelings of discrimination. The mobile box was banned access to the two penitentiaries in Tighina. Not all the voters got the stamp “Elections 05.04.09” in their identification papers, while some of the voters could not vote as they refused to have the given stamp put in their papers. Promo-Lex also noticed that most of the persons working at polling places were incompetent and sometimes biased. Ten polling places for the Moldovans living in Transnistria were set up in the neighboring settlements controlled by the Moldovan constitutional authorities. The polling station No. 5 in Corjova village of Dubasari district, which is the native village of President Vladimir Voronin, was closed after about 300 persons, militiamen and representatives of local public associations blocked access to the station and sequestrated the ballot box. The situation was much the same at the 2007 local elections. The Prosecutor’s Office took legal actions over violation of the right to vote and hindering of the activity of the polling place in Corjova village.