Election observers impressed by civility and democratic commitment in election

Election observers from neighboring Ukraine declare presidential elections free and fair, to international democratic standards

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Democratic and free, the hallmarks of a mature and civilized society. Those were some of the comments from three different teams of Ukrainian election observers who held press conferences at the independent press center in Tiraspol, capital of Pridnestrovie, late Sunday.

Natalia Vitrenko, a former presidential candidate from Ukraine, announced to reporters that the presidential elections in Pridnestrovie were held according to democratic European standards. She led an international observer delegation which throughout the day monitored 27 electorial districts in Tiraspol, Slobozya, Grigoriopol, and Rybnitsa.

" - We saw a clear and transparent organization of the election process. This characterizes Pridnestrovie as a mature and civilized country, with experience in carrying out democratic elections," noted Vitrenko.

The observers met with campaign representatives from three of the four candidates - Igor Smirnov, Nadezhda Bondarenko and Andrey Safonov. According to Natalia Vitrenko, all of them agreed with the observers' conclusions and none of them presented any complaints or criticism over the way that the elections had been carried out. There were no indications of fraud or coercion of voters by any of the candidates or the observers.

Meanwhile, international election observers of the Center for Strategic Initiatives in Ukraine, Vadim Mahnitskii and Vladimir Pavlenko, visited ten polling stations in Bender and Tiraspol before moving north in the country for the rest of Sunday.

" - We were pleasantly surprised by the openness and the activity of Pridnestrovie's voters during the course of today's Presidential elections in PMR. Let me assure you, Kiev would envy this kind of enthusiasm for the voting process. It is stronger, for instance, than at the parliamentary elections which were held this year in the Ukraine," noted the Ukrainian observers.

Compared to the last presidential election, in 2001, the observers concluded that Pridnestrovie has made significant progress in democratic development. They note that if any group or organization declines to send observers to participate and oversee future elections, this can only be explained as a politically motivated decision and should in no way reflect on the level of democracy which is present in Pridnestrovie today.

Minor criticism over one-language ballots

One observer group from Ukraine didn’t like the Russian language on the ballots. The representative of the Center for Strategic Initiatives in Ukraine, Vadim Mahnitskii, expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the text of the ballots for the elections which took place in Pridnestrovie Sunday were only printed in the Russian language, RIA Novosti reports.

" - The ballots are in Russian language only which according to us harmed the rights of Moldovan citizens and Ukrainians who live on the territory of Pridnestrovie," the Ukrainian observer stated. According to him that was the only violation noticed in accordance with the organization of the elections.

Other Ukrainian observers, however, downplayed the importance of this, noting that Russian is spoken fluently by everyone in Pridnestrovie, even the ethnic Moldovans and Ukrainians.

" - Everyone here speaks and read Russian fluently, so their rights are in no way harmed by printing ballots in a language which they can all fully understand," said international election specialist Vladimir Dovgeshko from Ukraine.

Vasiliy Pikhorovich, another Ukrainian election observer, mentioned the example of the United States where, by law, ballots are printed only in English even in those areas where there is a predominantly Spanish-speaking population. Like the United States, Pridnestrovie has minority schools where ethnic minorities are taught in their own languages. And, just like the United States, the election process takes place in the language which a majority of the population can speak and understand. Whereas everyone in Pridnestrovie can understand Russian, not everyone understands Moldovan or Ukranian, the two other official languages.

Pridnestrovie - which is sometimes referred to as Transnistria as well as Transdniester - is home to a total of 35 ethnic groups, divided into roughly equal parts of Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians, with a final ten percent shared by the remaining 32 ethnicities. Despite the broad ethnic mix, there is racial harmony and none of the ethnic tension which is seen in other multi-ethnic countries of Europe, such as Bosnia, Kosovo, or France.

See also:
» International observers call election preparations of Transnistria vote "lawful, well-regulated, democratic"
» Presidential candidates agree that voting was free and fair; transparent