Igor Smirnov is re-elected as leader of Transnistria – exit-polls

Over 63% of the voters have voted for the present separatist leader in Tiraspol, exit-polls’ results show. According to the same results, Smirnov is followed by the candidate of the Communist Party in the region Nadejda Bondarenko, who gathered 8.5% of the votes, editor of the opposition newspaper Andrei Safonov 6.5%, and Piotr Tomaili a slightly above 1%. 65.4% of voters have participated in the presidential elections on the left bank of Nistru River, the Central Election Commission in the region reports. According to the same source, over 250,000 people participated in the unrecognized elections. The electors in Grigoriopol were the most active – 75.6%, Camenca – 73.5%, while the most passive in Tiraspol, where about 60% of the total number of voters cast their votes. The International Community and Chisinau have officially announced that they will not validate the elections, regardless of their results. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, called the diplomatic missions and representations of international organizations to denounce the polls in Tiraspol and to refrain from monitoring elections organized by the secessionist regime. On the other hand, Russian observers, including MPs, who announced Moscow would recognize the elections’ results, have attended the polls.