Almost 90% of Moldovan Russians vote for Dmitry Medvedev

Over 87% of the Russian citizens living in Moldova and having participated in Sunday’s presidential elections voted for Dmitry Medvedev, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique of the Russian Embassy to Chisinau. The Communist hopeful Genady Zyuganov got 6.64% of the ballots, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky – more than 5%, and the candidate of the Democratic Party Andrei Bogdanov – 0.42%. 49,386 people went to vote at those over 20 polling stations on the Moldovan territory, what’s 1,500 more than in the parliamentary elections of December 2007. The Russian Ambassador to Moldova Valery Kuzmin told journalists on Sunday the elections were going normally, without any breaches. He said about 120 Russian citizens lived on the Moldovan soil, of which about 10,000 – on the left bank of the Nistru. Referring to the polling stations opened in the area controlled by the breakaway regime on the left bank of the Nistru, he said he did not want this issue to get politicized and that Russia wanted to offer the opportunity to all its citizens to participate in the elections. The minister for foreign affairs and European integration Andrei Stratan said later last week that the Ministry exposed its position in a verbal note, indicating the electoral process may be organized only in the premises of the Russian Embassy. More Moldovan political parties expressed their disagreement with Russia’s decision to open polling stations in the area on the left bank of the Nistru, demanding the country’s leadership to reply harsher to those breaches. According to the last preliminary results presented by Moscow, after counting 99.5% of the ballots, Dmitry Medvedev gathered 70.2% of votes, Zyuganov – almost 18%, Zhirinovsky – pover 9% and Bogdanov – more than 1%.