Separatist authorities hinder people from voting, Promo-Lex

The separatist Transnistrian authorities prevent the Moldovan citizens from voting by stopping the voters at the customs posts or sequestrating the license numbers of the units of transport, Ion Manole, president of Promo-Lex Association that monitors the elections in Transnistria, has told Info-Prim Neo Two buses with voters from Bender were stopped at the customs post that is 2 km from Varnita. The voters had been held for about 10 minutes until the Russian peacekeepers intervened, insisting that the voters are allowed to go to the polling place in Varnita. Yet, the mobile ballot box designed for the prisoners held in the Bender penitentiary remained at the customs post. According to Ion Manole, the Transnistrian authorities hinder the holding of elections in the region and the movement of the voters that want to mark their ballots at the polling places set up in the zone controlled by the constitutional authorities of Moldova. “Certainly, the people will not go to the polls. At a number of state-owned companies, the people were told to bring the Moldovan passport and card when they come to work on Monday (the persons that vote get the special stamp “Elections 05.04.09” in their identification papers – e.n.). It is obvious that they were banned from going to the polls,” Ion Manole said. Manole added that the authorities in Grigoriopol confiscated the license numbers of the buses that were to transport voters, while in Camenca it’s like a period of war as there is silence and no one travels along the streets. “In Camenca, both the Transnistrians and the Moldovans doubled the police posts. I understand the actions of the Transnistrians, not yet of the Moldovans... The Moldovan post is out of place. It’s like a real customs post at Moldova’s border,” Ion Manole said.