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Ballot counting is now underway in the presidential elections which observers called free, transparent and democratic

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - The presidential elections in the new and emerging Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, PMR, have ended, head of the Central Elections Commission of the republic Peter Denisenko told the news agency Interfax Sunday evening.

A total of 263 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time. At 8 p.m., all 263 polling stations were closed, including 14 which were located abroad.

Denisenko said there were no exact turnout figures. Tentative reports indicate that 63% to 65% of voters cast their ballots. According to updated reports, there are 394,000 voters in Pridnestrovie, also known unofficially under names such as Transdniester, Transnistria or Trans-Dnestr.

Denisenko said the elections had been conducted properly.

He said observers from international organizations as well as the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments did not register any significant violations. Parliamentarians from Poland also participated, with the Polish observer team being led by Mateusz Piskorski, MP of Poland's Sejm (Parliament).

A group of European observers noted that the election had been conducted correctly.

" - We have not complaints to make," one of them told the press.

" - What the people of Pridnestrovie did today is quite legitimate. The international community must recognize the right of the people of this country to choose its own president in a free, transparent, democratic way, and reject anyone who wants to accuse democracy of being illegitimate. Freedom is a human right," he said.

All candidates agree with democratic conduct of poll

None of the four registered candidates filed any complaints, Denisenko said. As reported in an earlier article [1] in The Tiraspol Times, although they disagree on politics, they all agreed that today's election was transparent, free and fair.

There were four candidates for presidency: incumbent president Igor Smirnov, member of the PMR parliament Peter Tomaily, and two journalists: editor-in-chief of the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper Andrei Safonov and editor-in-chief of the communist Pridnestrovian Pravda newspaper Nadezhda Bondarenko.

Denisenko said early results would be announced Monday.

American-influenced European organizations, such as the OSCE mission to Moldova, refused to send observers to the contest, but observers arrived from the numerous other countries and private human rights organizations who support democracy.

A large delegation from the lower house of Russia, the Duma, announced that Russia should officially recognize Pridnestrovie as a country, congressman and electoral observer Konstatin Satulin said Sunday in Tiraspol.

The predominantly Slavic population of Pridnestrovie meets the requirements for statehood under international law. It does not infringe on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova which is a country that did not exist when Pridnestrovie declared its independence. Pridnestrovie has a predominantly Slavic population and has historically never been part of Moldova, with the current border between the two - the Dniester river - having been an international border for centuries.

In 1990, during the breakup of the Soviet Union, Pridnestrovie declared its independence and established Tiraspol as the new republic's capital. It has its own flag, currency, police and border control, passports, constitution, parliament, a president, judiciary and a proudly independent people. It meets the requirement for statehood under international law and has functioned as a fully independent country for the past sixteen years. Only international recognition of its statehood is still missing. (With information from Interfax)

» International observers call election preparations of Transnistria vote "lawful, well-regulated, democratic" [2]
» Presidential candidates agree that voting was free and fair; transparent [3]