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The International Press Center in Tiraspol, PMR, will be hosting more than 100 journalists from all over the world

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - This Monday, the doors were opened to the International Press Center (IPC) in Tiraspol, the capital of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica; popularly known as Transnistria. The press center was established to facilitate media access to information on the upcoming independence referendum, scheduled to take place this Sunday, on 17 September.

The leading news world agencies of the world have already descended on the small but so far unrecognized country. Correspondents from BBC, Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, as well as newspaper and television channels from Russia, Japan, Romania, Ukraine, the USA and several countries of the European Union have started to arrive, with a total of more than one hundred foreign journalists scheduled to show for election day, Sunday.

On the ground, to help them communicate will be the International Press Center, a modern multimedia center equipped with the latest technology. Journalists can hook up with free high speed Internet broadband and video conferencing systems, connected to live feeds from polling stations throughout the length of the republic.

At the press center's opening, the chairman of the Central Election Committee, Peter Denisenko, told journalists that the country's election committee is ready in terms of logistics and that everything is on schedule for Sunday's referendum. He specified the number of voters included in voter lists - 390,061 people - and assured everyone of full access, noting that the CEC’s work is going to be totally transparent and that nothing will be off limits to the press.

Europe and USA sending non-government observers

Also present at the opening was former chairman of Pridnestrovie's parliament, ex-speaker Grigori Maracutsa. He met with the international press, informing them of his willingness to assist them in every possible way to ensure the utmost transparency in what he has no doubt will be a free and fair democratic process. According to Maracutsa, an ethnic Moldovan, journalists will be able to cover the voting in real-time mode and meet with international observers from Germany, Ukraine, Great Britain, the USA and a number of other countries. Although most of these countries have declared their unwillingness to send government-accredited observers, many NGOs are sending their own staff to observe the vote in the interest of transparency and as an aid to the new and emerging democracies. As with previous elections, several foreign members of parliaments will also show, demonstrating that for individual MPs the transparency of a free and fair vote is important.

The International Press Center is going to work seven days a week, with the number of press conferences increasing as voting day approaches. Denisenko informed that preliminary results of the voting will be announced at the press center on 18 September at 10 o'clock.

As reported by Tiraspol Times, voters of Pridnestrovie - also known by the informal name Transnistria - will go to the polls Sunday to vote the following two questions:
1. Do you support the course towards the independence of the PMR and a subsequent free association with the Russian Federation?
2. Do you consider it possible to renounce the PMR's independent status and subsequently become part of the Republic of Moldova?

The small country, home to 555,000 inhabitants, declared independence in 1990, during the fall of the Soviet Union. Although widely considered a part of Moldova, it was already independent in 1991 when the current Republic of Moldova was created, and since that date, Moldova has never been able to enforce its territorial claim or any of its laws over the staunchly independent people living on the left bank of the Dniester river.