European observers give high marks to clean elections in Transdniester

European election observers highlight the transparency and openness of PMR's 10 Dec election

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Giving a preliminary report on their observations, European election monitors from France and Italy, along with a CIS-EMO delegation, held a press conference at the independent press center in Tiraspol as the polls were closing in Sunday's presidential election.

Approximately 300 observers participated in the election. More than 140 international election observers achieved accreditation by the Central Election Commission, in addition to 157 local political and human rights observers.

Editor-in-chief of the magazine Eurasia, Italian university professor Perugio Tiberio Graziani, reported that his observer mission visited a number of polling stations in Kamenka, in northern Pridnestrovie.

Among other things, they checked for marked ballot papers and examined voter lists. No violations were found, leading observers to conclude that democracy is taken seriously by election workers, volunteers and voters in that part of the country.

Kamenka, a district capital nearly 200 km north of PMR's main city, Tiraspol, is normally not visited by foreign observers. In the last presidential election, in 2001, this lack of scrutiny led Moldovan journalists to claim that election results were suspicious and that Igor Smirnov had received 103.6% of the votes in Kamenka in 2001. Official data from the Central Election Commission proved this claim to be a malicious fabrication, and witness testimony from opposition representatives also showed the made-up accusation to be untrue. It was nevertheless picked up by an American document and reported as fact, despite evidence to the contrary. This tainted the 2001 election as less than democratic, so this year, the Central Election Commission had asked observers to monitor elections in out-of-the-way polling places like those in the Kamenka region.

The team led by Graziani found no irregularities or indications of fraud and highlighted the democratic and collaborative way in which both pro-government and opposition volunteers worked to get the voters to the polls and ensure a democratic outcome.

Active involvement of civic society, citizen volunteers

During the press conference, Graziani also stressed that the future of the unrecognized country is now in the hands of the citizens of Pridnestrovie.

French election observer and editor-in-chief of the French publication "Reconnaissance and Strategy", Antoine Colón, was pleased that in PMR he saw a voting process very similar to many other European countries.

Earlier, Antoine Colón had reported to journalists that in the West, there are many misperceptions about life in Pridnestrovie and the level of democracy:

" - Western media prefers to publish negative articles about Pridnestrovie. For me, as a journalist, this one-sided bias seems strange and wrong. Therefore I decided to see the truth with my own eyes. In my opinion, Pridnestrovie is a part of Europe and it deserves to be evaluated objectively by other countries."

The President of Russia's Federal Union of Lawyers, Alexei Galoganov, noted that an efficient election organization and a very active involvement of civic society, citizen volunteers and voters who went to the polling stations which a level of commitment that, according to Galoganov, is rarely seen in elections elsewhere.

" - Pridnestrovie is on the right track!" he told the assembled journalists, summing up a day of election monitoring which gave high marks to the level of democracy and civic consciousness in the unrecognized country.

The European observer mission recognized that elections in Pridnestrovie are democratic and conform to relevant international election standards.

Pridnestrovie is known abroad as Transdniester or Transnistria. Before elections started, neighboring Moldova issued a statement charging that "elections will be held in an absolutely undemocratic atmosphere." The European observers confirmed that this accusation was groundless and voiced an opinion that the statement was probably part of a political disinformation campaign by Moldova, designed to confuse outsiders about the current state of democracy in the new and emerging country.

Moldova pursues a territorial claim on Pridnestrovie, which it has repeatedly attempted to isolate and prevent from obtaining support within the international community.

See also:
» Election observers impressed by civility and democratic commitment in election
» International observers call election preparations "lawful, well-regulated, democratic"

On the web:
» Preliminary observation conclusions by the international election observer delegation (in Russian)