Over 40,000 Romanies voted in constitutional referendum

More than 40,000 Romanies took part in the September 5 constitutional plebiscite. Ion Duminica, vice president of the Social-Political Movement of the Roma, said in a news conference that the number of Romanies who voted in the referendum in some of the settlements was higher than of voters of other ethnic groups, Info-Prim Neo reports. “This referendum was the first political exercise for our organization. The Movement of the Roma succeeded in mobilizing one third of the Romani people,” Ion Duminica said. Most of the Romanies voted in Soroca, Otaci, Cainari, Nisporeni and Calarasi. The movement's vice president considers the low voter turnout is due to the poor political culture in Moldova. According to him, a solution for remedying the situation is to teach politology, philosophy, psychology and other types of courses in schools. Ion Duminica said the poor informing of the voters is another cause for the lack of interest in the referendum. The first vice president of the movement Robert Cecari said some of the Romanies were threatened they will face problems if they vote in the plebiscite. “They phoned and told us not to go to the polls if we do not want Moldova to unite with Romania. Despite all the threats, the Romanies cast their ballots,” he said. There are over 100,000 Romanies in Moldova.