Chisinau has finally decided the number of polling stations that the Central Election Commission will open in Russia for the presidential elections on October 20. At the request of the Information and Security Service (ISS), there will be 2 instead of the 5 previously announced. This was announced by the Central Election Commission today, October 7.
“The Central Election Commission points out the impossibility of organizing elections in polling stations No. 38/196, No. 38/197, No. 38/198. The documents for the organization of elections in these three polling stations must be destroyed.” — the chairman of the Central Election Commission announced the resolution Angela Karaman.
The Commission clarified that this decision was taken taking into account the opinions of the ISS and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which consider the organization of the polling stations there to be “unsafe”. Thus, Moldovan citizens living in Russia (according to various estimates there are up to half a million of them) will only be able to exercise their will in two areas of the territory of the embassy in Moscow.
Recall that at first the Central Election Commission of Moldova decided to reduce the number of polling stations in Russia from 17 to 5 due to the “unfavorable security situation.” Then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chisinau announced that it coordinated only two of them. The Party of Socialists then challenged this decision, describing the authorities’ action as sabotage towards the most representative diaspora voters abroad. The CEC accepted the complaint, forcing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the district electoral council to implement its decision to open five polling stations in Russia: two in Moscow, one in St. Petersburg, one in Yaroslavl and one in Surgut.
The SIS then intervened, reaching a final conclusion on the security issue, to which the CEC finally referred, confirming the opening of only two polling stations. The diaspora living in Russia is also deprived of the possibility of voting by mail, as was allowed in several European countries, the United States and Canada.
As reported EADaily The Congress of Russian Communities of Moldova stated that the Moldovan authorities discriminate against compatriots living in Russia by limiting their right to vote. They promised to appeal to the President of Russia and the State Duma of the Russian Federation with a proposal not to recognize the results of the presidential elections in Moldova. They also ask the Russian leader for protection against Romanian national extremists.
