There are no legal reasons to open polling station in Corjova, Transnistrian foreign ministry

There are no legal reasons to set up a polling place in Corjova village of Dubasari district, the Transnistrian foreign ministry said Friday, Info-Prim Neo’s correspondent in Tiraspol reports. “Under the present Transnistrian legislation, the holding of the election campaign and other forms of expression of the people’s will on the territory of the region is within the competence of our CEC, not of the CEC of other states,” the ministry says in a statement. “The decision to open polling stations for the elections of other states on the territory of Transnistria is made after filing an official application to the CEC of Transnistria. Given that no such application was lodged by the Moldovan CEC and that Moldova’s note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only informed about the decision to set up a polling place in Corjova, the authorities in Transnistria do not have reasons to open this station,” the statement says. The Transnistrian authorities ask avoiding any actions that could lead to the destabilization of the situation in the security zone. Transnistria will act only in accordance with the Transnistrian legislation and the agreements on territorial delimitation existing between the sides, the Transnistrian foreign ministry says. Jurisdiction over Corjova is disputed between the central authorities in Chisinau and regional authorities in Tiraspol. “It is two days before the elections, but the polling station No. 5 in Corjova does not have the necessary supplies. The ballot boxes remain sequestrated at the customs post near Pohrebea village of Dubasari district. The village is patrolled by militiamen in uniform. The inhabitants are threatened that if they go to the polls, the clashes will be more serious than in June 2007,” Ion Manole, president of the Promo-Lex Association that monitors the electoral process in the Transnistrian region, said Friday. The central authorities in Chisinau and the regional authorities in Tiraspol must hold talks to find an understanding that enables Moldovan citizens in Corjova to exercise their right to vote, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office’s Special Coordinator, Petros Efthymiou, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Philip Remler, said on Thursday, April 2.