People who asked for access to polling stations as accredited observers showed up at several polling stations in Romania and Russia on the morning of October 20. They told the heads of electoral offices that they were representatives of particular parties, IPN reports.

The persons were denied access on the grounds that their documents were not registered by the legal deadline.

In a conversation with IPN’s reporter, a number of interlocutors from the Central Election Commission and polling stations established in Iasi and Suceava said that “observers” of pro-Russian parties presented themselves in an organized way at the polling stations and spoke exclusively in Russian.

At the station in Iasi, a woman said that she received instructions through an online group with about 700 members. According to the instructions, if access was denied to them, the “observers” needed to ask for the issuance of an official document attesting to this refusal.

A similar incident took place at the polling station in Suceava, where a citizen of the Republic of Moldova insistently asked to be allowed access to the polling station as an observer, invoking the accreditation on behalf of another opposition party.

In this connection, the chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, Angelica Caraman said that the institution was notified that in some of the polling stations abroad, including in the Russian Federation, people with non-compliant documents asked to be registered as representatives of election competitors.

“We note that the regulations specify the procedure for submitting documents and the corresponding registration. And we also remind that voters, electoral officials, representatives of election  contestants and referendum campaigners, observers and the media are entitled to participate in electoral operations if they are registered according to the rules described in the regulations that were adopted by the Central Election Commission,” stated Angelica Caraman.