Polling place in Corjova blocked

Access to the polling station No. 5 in Corjova village of Dubasari district is blocked. Pavel Postica, observer on behalf of Promo-Lex Association, has told Info-Prim Neo that about 300 civilians are holding a protest in front of the polling place set up at Mihai Eminescu High School. The ballot box was sequestrated and is kept in a militia car. According to Postica, the protesters are representatives of different local public associations: veterans of the Afghan war, the Women’s Union of Dubasari, the Union of Transnistria’s Defenders, Kazaks. The protesters carry placards and flags of Russia and Transnistria and chant: “No to Illegal Elections!”. The protest is peaceful, but access to the station is blocked. Moldovan policemen watch the protest from a distance. No person managed to vote until 08.30. Postica also said that the Transnistrian militia blocked the access roads to Cocieri village, where there was set up another polling place. “We were informed that the road along the barrage is also blocked. One can cross the river only with the ferry,” Postica said. The mayor of Corjova village Valeriu Mitul said that the power supply in the village was cut off at 5.00, while at 6.40 the polling station was blocked and the ballot box confiscated. “Transnistrian militiamen and nongovernmental associations came here and blocked the village roads with special equipment, while mobile groups go through the village and urge the people not to go to the polls,” Mitul said. According to him, the members of the electoral office are inside the polling place. The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced that all the polling places were opened at 7.00. The voting started as planned, with no incidents, except Corjova village, where the law enforcement bodied of the unconstitutional separatist authorities occupied the polling station No.5 and do not allow the people to vote, says a communiqué issued by the CEC this morning. International observers from the Embassy of Ukraine, Embassy of the United States, the OSCE, the European Union and representatives of the Ministry of Reintegration are on the spot, the communiqué says. Jurisdiction over Corjova is disputed between the central authorities in Chisinau and regional authorities in Tiraspol. During the 2007 local elections in Corjova, Transnistrian law enforcement bodies prevented voters from entering the polling station. A number of villagers that wanted to vote and police officers were then mistreated by the Transnistrian militia that destroyed the electoral supplies of the station. Afterward, the Parliament of Moldova extended the term of the local elected authorities until there were created conditions for holding elections. During the 2005 parliamentary elections, Transnistrian authorities blocked attempts to carry out mobile voting for home-bound voters, while in 2003 the polling station for Corjova was opened in the neighboring village Cocieri, which is controlled by the Moldovan constitutional authorities.