A group of people, led by politicians affiliated with Șor, protested in front of the CEC. Postica: "They are guided by strictly political criteria"
Dozens of people, led by politicians affiliated with the fugitive oligarch Ilan Şor, picketed, today, the headquarters of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC). They chanted political, anti-government slogans and demanded an increase in the number of polling stations in the Russian Federation for the October 20 polls, as well as the resignation of CEC deputy chairperson Pavel Postica.
The organizer of the protest was the Congress of Russian Communities from the Republic of Moldova, led by Valerii Klimenko, who constantly participates in various events organized by Şor, including in Moscow. Klimenko claims that the opening of only five polling stations in the Russian Federation would affect the voting rights of Moldovan citizens there.
"Pro-European authorities in Moldova are trying to restrict the constitutional right of more than half a million Moldovan citizens living in Russia to participate in elections. We request the CEC to open polling stations in all regional centers of the Russian Federation".
In reply, the deputy chairperson of the CEC, Pavel Postica, declared for Teleradio-Moldova that the decision of the CEC to open five polling stations in the Russian Federation is legal and is confirmed by the courts. Postica said that the protest is political.
“The fact that someone is unhappy about the number of polling stations opened is, from my personal point of view, a fabricated reason because they have not even challenged this decision of the CEC which decided to open five polling stations. So they accepted this. Now what is happening - there are protests organized in front of the central electoral institution, effectively only shows the fact that they are guided by some strictly political criteria that have nothing in common with legality". Postica mentioned that some of the protesters are representatives of political parties that are either suspended or not officially registered as participants in the October elections. According to the deputy chairperson of the CEC, these actions will be investigated including from the perspective of financing political-electoral activities.
"Through these concerted actions together they only show that they are trying to present themselves to the general public as a bloc or a community of parties connected to a single option. From this point of view, I get the impression that the decisions to be adopted on these cases, because we document them all, all these parties spend financial resources on these activities. We will research and examine including from the perspective of financing these political-electoral activities".
We remind that among the protesters were Alexei Lungu, leader of the "Sansa" Party, whose activity was temporarily suspended, and Iurii Vitneanski, one of the leaders of the "Renaissance" Party, also affiliated with Șor. We remind that only the "Renastere" Party is registered as a participant in the constitutional republican referendum on October 20 with the option to vote "NO".
This year, five polling stations will be opened in the Russian Federation, compared to 17 that were opened in the previous election. The CEC previously said for Teleradio-Moldova that the decision was taken for security reasons. Even so, the decision of the electoral authority was harshly criticized by Moscow and was contested by the Socialist Party, registered as an electoral competitor, in court. The CEC decision was declared legal.
