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A voter in Tiraspol, the capital of Pridnestrovie, defies Moldova's claim and casts her ballot for president

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - In an official statement by the Foreign Ministry of Moldova, issued before the voting started, the country urges the international community to condemn Sunday's 10 December presidential election in "the Transnistrian region", as it calls Pridnestrovie.

Moldova claims that "elections will be held in an absolutely undemocratic atmosphere" and are, according to Moldova, proof of "Tiraspol's unwillingness to new negotiations."

" - They want to stop us from going to the polls," said an angry Bender-resident, Mihnea Nanca. "But we have a right to choose our president and they can not stop our presidential election just by calling it illegal."

In its statement, Moldova’s Foreign Ministry also slammed the election as “orchestrated by a separatist regime” and called on diplomatic missions “to abstain from monitoring this provocative action and decisively condemn it.” The less-than-diplomatic language testified to the level of sensitivity displayed by Moldova's top officials to the democratic wish of 555,000 people which it supposedly wants to incorporate into Moldova.

The dispute stems from Moldovan claim that only one of the two independence declarations which dissolved the Moldavian SSR is legal. Pridnestrovie declared independence from the MSSR in 1990, and Moldova did the same one year later, in 1991. As a result, the citizens of Pridnestrovie still suffers from a lack of international recognition.

" - Imagine living in a country which is not on the map: You can't travel, because officially, you are stateless. Your country is not recognized and your vote, if you want to cast it, is called illegal by some of your closest neighbors," says columnist Michael Garner [1].

" - Now, once more, Moldova says that voting is illegal. This is the usual line from Moldova. Transdniestria should be used to it by now, and my best advice is: Forget it. Vote anyway, because more democracy is always better than less."

For more than 16 years, life in small Pridnestrovie has been suspended in a situation where its legal status vis-a-vis Moldova is unresolved, at least in the eyes of Moldova and much of the international community. In 1992, Moldova tried to impose a status solution by force: It attacked its young neighbor, then less than two years old, in what sparked a war for independence. The fiercely pro-independent population of cities like Tiraspol, Bender and Rybnitsa in the north defended themselves in a short but bloody war which took 1,000 lives before a Russian-mediated ceasefire was imposed.

Since the war, the people and authorities of Pridnestrovie have built what many independent observers consider a lawful, well-regulated internal governance system.

They have constructed their own political institutions; through elections they have selected their own authorities and developed a legislative framework. Today, they have recognized the need for a basic law, and chosen the internationally accepted practice of democratic elections as the only acceptable way to collectively decide who should represent the people.

" - This is something that Moldova and the rest of the world must understand, like it or not," said Vlad Viteazul as he cast his vote in Sunday's election. Observers reported that voting was democratic, peaceful and calm, and confirmed to internationally recognized Council of Europe standards.

Moldova singled out for election abuses

Diplomats and political analysts agree that Moldova is wrong in its outright rejection of the moves towards pluralism that are taking place on the other side of the Dniester river.

One diplomat from a European country explained to Tiraspol Times that he does not consider the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica a perfect democracy, but that it has improved a lot in the past two or three years in particular "and those are the kind of developments that should be encouraged and supported, because openness bring better lives to the half million people who live there."

Moldova is a country which has received strong criticism for its spotty commitment to democracy and human rights. The United States Senate recently held committee hearings on irregularities that marred elections in Moldova, including arrests and harassment of opposition candidates, intimidation and suppression of independent media, and state run media bias in favor of candidates backed by the Communist-led Moldovan Government. Other Western critics have also referred to Moldova's Communist Party government as being authoritarian, and there have been widespread reports of politically motivated arrests and arrests without valid legal grounds, leading experts to conclude that Moldova is hardly the right country to teach others about when a vote is "legitimate" and when it is "illegitimate".

" - Moldova claims that exercising a vote is a provocation and an obstruction to the peace process. Just the opposite. At the core of the negotiations to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict is the right of the people of Transdniester for self-determination. What really obstructs the process here is the Moldovan overreaction to the other side's democratic activities," says a Western political analyst with knowledge of the situation.

" - Be smart. There is nothing provocative in wanting to have a political voice in the most democratic way of all, through the ballot box. Recognize that people have spoken, have chosen their president, and then make the best of it. There is someone to negotiate with, and someone who was elected in a democratic way, overseen by hundreds of foreign journalists and international election observers."

In the breakup of the Soviet Union, Pridnestrovie - also known unofficially as Trans-Dniestria or Transnistria, among other names - declared independence on 2 September 1990. An unsettled territorial claim by Moldova has prevented it from gaining international recognition despite meeting all the requirements for statehood under international law.

See also:
» Voting democratic, calm as Transdniester picks its president [2]