Voters in Transnistria continue to be discriminated

The electoral campaign is characterized by a series of patterns that can limit the voting opportunities of certain groups of voters, Promo-LEX Association says in its first report on the monitoring of the campaign for the July 29 elections, which covered the period between June 16 and July 11, 2009. Promo-LEX, which usually monitors Moldova’s Transnistrian region, during the current electoral campaign also supervises the electoral process in a number of districts located on the right bank of the Nistru, where polling places are traditionally set up for Transnistrian voters, namely Floresti, Rezina, Dubasari, Anenii Noi, Causeni, and Stefan Voda, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We continued to monitor the Transnistrian region because we included serious and true findings in our previous reports that should be taken into account. We ascertained that a large part of our recommendations were implemented selectively or were not implemented at all,” Promo-LEX president Ion Manole said at the launch of the report on July 14. He expressed concern about the lack of attitude on the part of the electoral bodies. “The constituencies No. 3 and No. 37 for the Transnistrian region have been created again, but the electoral councils for them have not been yet set up. It is not clear why they were created, if there are no councils and poling places there, as we recommended in our previous monitoring reports,” Ion Manole said. “As the elections will take place on a workday, the Moldovan voters abroad and the Transnistrians will not be able to make their choice. Thus, their right to vote is infringed. The obligation to vote at the temporary place of residence and the lack of additional regulations make the participation of students that are in some other places difficult,” said Ion Guzun, jurist at Promo-LEX. The observers reported occurrences of undue influence on voters, excessive involvement of law enforcement agencies into the electoral process, undue involvement of underage citizens into campaign activities, and preferential treatment of some electoral contenders by the local public administration. Promo-LEX will continue monitoring the electoral process and will publish reports until July 29. The project is implemented with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).