Over 200,000 Moldovans in Transnistrian region will not be able to vote, Promo-Lex

The Moldovan citizens living in the Transnistrian region are discriminated in exercising their right to vote, including by the electoral authorities of Moldova. This is the conclusion of the second report on the monitoring of the electoral process in Moldova’s Transnistrian region for the 2009 parliamentary elections presented on April 3, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Central Election Commission (CEC) distributed only 14,500 ballots to the 10 polling places set up in the region, while the data of the Ministry of Information Development show that 223,580 Moldovans are eligible to vote in Transnistria. So, about 209,000 persons will not be able to vote there, said Pavel Postica, jurist at Promo-Lex. The CEC made such a decision basing on the data of the 2005 parliamentary elections, when about 8,000 persons voted in the 10 polling places. “But this is not the real situation,” said Pavel Postica. “There are much more persons in the region that want to take part in elections but cannot because they are intimidated by the Transnistrian authorities, while the Moldovan authorities did not create the necessary conditions for them. The people were not informed about the place, date and method of voting. A large part of the residents do not even know where they could vote,” Postica said. According to Ion Manole, president of the Promo-Lex Association, the most difficult situation is in Corjova village of Dubasari district. “It is two days before the elections, but the polling station No. 5 in Corjova does not have the necessary supplies. The ballot boxes remain sequestrated at the customs post near Pohrebea village of Dubasari district. The village is patrolled by militiamen in uniform. The inhabitants are threatened that if they go to the polls, the clashes will be more serious than in June 2007,” Ion Manole said. “After sequestrating the boxes on March 19, they started to exert pressure on the priest, mayor, members of the electoral office and ordinary people. All those that work at companies in Dubasari have been threatened with dismissal.” The report authors ascertained that the electoral campaign in the region had a sporadic character because the Transnistrian customs officers confiscated many of the electoral materials and because the electoral contenders had a lackadaisical attitude. Yet, the monitors of Promo-Lex noticed that election posters of the PCRM appeared in Tiraspol and Bender on March 25, when President Vladimir Voronin and the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov were to have a meeting. “The posters were placed high on posts, including near militia posts and peacekeepers posts. This makes us think that the action was coordinated with the Transnistrian authorities,” Ion Manole said. No other posters were observed in the two towns were there are concentrated the largest part of the voters in the region – about 88,000. At the same time, the MAE, UCM, PL, and PLDM campaigned in such settlements as Camenca, Rabnita, Grigoriopol, Slobozia. The monitors also established that the local mass media covered the legislative elections in Moldova from a negative angle, urging the people not to take part in elections and report when they see somebody transporting electoral materials. The report was prepared by Promo-Lex Association as part of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Coalition 2009”. It covered the period between March 10 and April 2, 2009. Seven observers collected the data. The monitoring of the electoral process in the Transnistrian region is a novelty in Moldova’s election history. The project was financially supported by Eurasia Foundation from the resources of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the United States Agency for International Development.