Two policemen will guard every polling place

Two policemen will watch the polling places on April 5 to ensure public order, the head of the Interior Ministry’s General Police Division Petru Corduneanu told a news conference on April 2, Info-Prim Neo reports. Petru Corduneanu said that from today, by two police officers will supervise the transportation of ballots from the printing house to the polling stations set up in the country. They will be armed and escorted by the traffic police. At the polling place, the ballots will be under the supervision of another two policemen until Sunday morning, 6.00. By two police officers will guard the poling places on the elections day, at a distance of 100 meters from each other. “This way, one of the policemen could vote, while the other will be on duty,” Corduneanu said. The police officers will remain at the polling places after they close at 21.00. The police officers are not allowed to enter the polling stations in uniform and with firearms, except the conscript military men. “The sale of alcoholic drinks near polling places and the entrance of armed persons into the polling places are banned. Reports will be drawn up over acts of hooliganism and serious violations of public order,’” Corduneanu said. Asked how the security will be ensured in Corjova village, Petru Corduneanu said that the Interior Ministry and the special services of the state administration will make sure that the elections are conducted smoothly in all the settlements, including Corjova. The local elections held in Corjova on June 3 and 17, 2007 failed because the separatist forces blocked access to the polling place. Transnistrian militiamen destroyed the electoral supplies of the polling place and ill-treated police officers and a number of villagers that wanted to vote. It was for the first time that a poling station was closed by force. During the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Transnistrian authorities foiled the attempts to organize mobile elections for the residential voters, while in 2003 the polling place for Corjova was set up in the neighboring village Cocieri, which is controlled by Moldova. According to the Interior Ministry, 81 cases of violation of the electoral legislation involving 121 persons have been recorded since February 5.