Presidential candidates agree that voting was free and fair; transparent

One of the 3 opposition candidates, Andrey Safonov, voted in Bender and found it in line with European democratic standards

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - High marks for efficiency and transparency is the first early result that became known from Sunday's 10 December presidential elections in Pridnestrovie. All competing candidates are in agreement that it was a well-organized process, conducted in a calm and peaceful atmosphere with a high level of transparency. Even fierce opposition critic Andrey Safonov - who earlier in the week faced off against the Central Election Commission over a registration disagreement - admitted that the election process was conducted in a satisfactory manner.

" - I also believe that with the participation in the elections of the opposition, it will greatly increase turnout. Furthermore, in my view, the four candidates represent [the full spectrum of] the political palette," said Safonov, as reported by news agency Lenta PMR.

Safonov, the owner and editor of PMR's largest opposition newspaper, voted in Bender. He arrived at the polling station with his 14-year old daughter Olga.

" - The political status settlement between Pridnestrovie and Moldova depends on these two sides of the conflict," he told New Region press whose Bender-based reported covered the Safonov campaign's activities during election day.

" - Other countries and participants in the status talks are now interesting in seeing progress, everything else must be decided via negotiations. But it depends on the will of Chisinau and Tiraspol now. No one else can settle this matter," said Safonov, who initially backed independence in the early 1990s, but who has since become one of the fiercest critics of the Smirnov-led government. During the campaign, he has called for Pridnestrovie to form a federation with Moldova.

Free and fair atmosphere of transparency

Voting with his wife in Tiraspol, the capital of Pridnestrovie, incumbent president Igor Smirnov - seeking reelection - told assembled journalists from the local and international news media that "this election confirms that democracy is not something that can be designed by another country. It is not something that can be imposed and spread from the outside. It is born from within the society itself."

" - The election shows to the international community that the people of Pridnestrovie freely has chosen its own future, independently," said Igor Smirnov.

The candidate also noted that election day coincided with an important human rights milestone. Around the world, Sunday, 10 December, was also the annual International Human Rights Day; as declared by the United Nations.

" - This is of course a coincidence, but it is nevertheless quite symbolic," said Smirnov. He noted that Moldova calls the voting process "illegitimate" and don't want Pridnestrovie to have the right to choose its own future. But diplomats and other international observers all agree that democracy is a basic human right and that the elections in Pridnestrovie have been carried out in a free and fair atmosphere of transparency, following international election standards and United Nations norms.

Veep candidate: "Our future is a democratic, independent state"

Meanwhile, voting in Bender, his running mate Alex Korolev - the Vice presidential candidate on the Smirnov ticket - told the press that he sees a large future for the small country:
" - The future of our republic is a future as an independent state, a democratic state, and a flourishing state," he told reporters while voting in his hometown of Bender, Pridnestrovie's second largest city. Korolev voted in the electoral district No. 15, in the Bender Polytechnic branch of TSU, the country's T.G. Shevchenko state university.

Businessman Peter Tomaily, an independent, and the Communist Party leader Nadezhda Bondarenko, a former police officer, both expressed satisfaction with the way that the election process was organized.

Previous elections in December 2005 and in September 2006 were conducted democratically, with 153 international observers giving their stamp of approval and declaring them to be free and democratic. The only "observers" who claimed otherwise were those who weren't even there, most notably official Western groups like the American-led OSCE mission to Moldova which follows the Moldovan government's policy of not wanting to recognize democratic advances in the new and emerging country.

See also:
» Moldova wants to stop presidential election in Transdniester; calls vote "illegal"