The Central Election Commission of Moldova destroyed 26,000 ballots for the presidential elections intended for three polling stations on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The Chisinau authorities, citing possible security problems, decided the day before to open only two polling stations on the territory of the embassy in Moscow, instead of the five previously announced. The Central Election Commission clarifies that these 26 thousand ballots were planned to be sent to the polling stations in Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Surgut.
“This was due to the decision of the electoral commission, according to which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not guarantee the holding of the vote in the indicated polling stations.” – noted the CEC.
The cost of a ballot is 0.63 lei. Thus, the State spent more than 16,000 lei (about 90,000 rubles) to print these 26,000 ballots.
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”, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved only two. When public outcry arose over discrimination against the largest diaspora of Moldovans abroad, the Commission was forced to force the foreign policy department to implement the decision to open all previously determined areas. The ISS then intervened, reaching a final conclusion on the safety issue, which was ultimately referred to the CEC.
The presidential elections in Moldova will take place on October 20, the same day as the referendum on European integration. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already started sending more than 850,000 ballots to foreign polling stations.
The opposition claimed that the destruction of Russian diaspora ballots declared by the CEC did not actually occur and that these forms will be used to falsify the voting results in favor of Maia Sandu.
As reported EADaily Observers from the public organization Promo-LEX recorded cases of use of administrative resources by the ruling “Action and Solidarity” party, which nominated Sandu. This is also confirmed by the political opponents of the current head of state, who have repeatedly filed complaints about this with the CEC, but without success. The opposition is confident that the Central Electoral Commission, like other state institutions, is under the political control of the authorities and “will go to any extreme of anarchy” for Maia Sandu’s victory.
