Shelin: Foreign interests are behind CEC decision

Behind the Central Election Commission's decision to invalidate over 197,000 signatures are the United States, the Romanian government, as well as Ghimpu, Filat, Lupu and Plahotniuc, stated Victor Shelin, Social-Democratic Party president and the leader of the initiative group for a referendum on Moldova's accession to the Eurasian Customs Union, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Shelin, while on August 2 the results showed that those over 200,000 signatures collected were valid and the referendum could take place, the final result was unfavorable and that was due to the intervention of agencies outside the Election Commission, such as the Security and Intelligence Service, and that was against the law. “As the CEC was processing the signatures, there came foreign special agents and foreign analysts to see whether we were taking away votes from the Communists' or the Liberal-Democrats' voter base. On Thursday after 5:00pm we already knew what the CEC would decide. Now it will be a difficult mission to explain to the 500,000 Moldovans working in Russia that they will lose their jobs. This is because Vladimir Putin issued an ordinance limiting the number of migrant workers from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Moldova. This problem could have been solved through Moldova's accession to this Customs Union”, said Shelin. He went on to accuse Romania of having a role in the CEC's decision, and this was in line with its “hidden agenda” to obtain unification, which “will never happen”. Shelin further announced that the initiative group would challenge the CEC's decision in court, and if the ruling was unfavorable, the initiative would be undertaken anew.