Transnistrian referendum, 2006
Encyclopedia
The 2006 referendum in Transnistria took place in Transnistria
on 17 September 2006. On that date, Transnistria voted to continue its de facto
independence and seek closer ties with Russia
.
n organisations announced before the referendum that they would not recognise its results. Ballots for the referendum were reprinted 3 times, as the chairman of electoral commission, Piotr Denisenko, announced a shrinkage of electorate of 7% compared with previous year
Of the total of 394,861 registered voters, the voter turnout
was 78.6%, substantially more than the 50%+1 required by law to validate the referendum.
On the day of the referendum
, no exit poll
ing was allowed within 25 meters of polling stations, to prevent disruption of voting.
International organisations, such as the OSCE, European Union
, GUAM
, and some other countries (Bulgaria
, Romania
, Ukraine
, Turkey
, Croatia
, Montenegro
, Macedonia
, Serbia
, Albania
, Bosnia
, Iceland
, Norway
) did not recognise the referendum.
According to Russian News Agency RIA Novosti, more than 130 international observers monitored the referendum and reported that "they did not register any procedural violations during the secret balloting," and the representative of the Congress of Russian Communities from Moldova declared that the referendum was held according to international standards. However, no internationally recognised monitoring organisations had observers present.
Viktor Alksnis
, a deputy from the Russian party "Rodina
" stated that referendum in Transnistria was held without any violations of legislation and democratic standards.
Viktor Alksnis is known to have previously described the Transnistrian Republic
as the base from which the Soviet Union
's restoration would begin.
In the opinion of the Ukrainian foreign ministry, the situation in Transnistria fails to meet the conditions of a free will expression by citizens.
According to the OSCE, the media climate in the Transdniestrian region is restrictive, as authorities there continue a long-standing campaign to silence independent opposition voices and movements.
Althoguh the OSCE decided not to send any observers to monitor the referendum, 130 observers from CIS and Europe and from eleven election monitoring organizations who did attend the referendum had different reactions.
In contrast, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
in Moldova
(HCHRM) claims to have observed a series of infringements at the referendum:
Karel De Gucht
(Chairman of the OSCE) expressed an opinion about the "lack of basic requirements for free and fair elections, such as freedom of the media, freedom of assembly and political pluralism, in the region pre-determined the results" and argued that the questions in the referendum are suggestively worded. In a possible manipulation of the public opinion, people are asked to choose between freedom ("free association") and loss of independence ("renounce the Transnistria's independent status"), between reality ("support the course") and possibility ("consider it possible") This formulation could have resulted in a response bias
.
Victor Josu, deputy editor-in-chief of Russian-language Moldovan newspaper Moldavskiye Vedomosti, an accredited observer, described the referendum as a successful public relations
action (regardless of violations and a lack of recognition) and reported favorably on a comparison between "recognized Chişinau" and "unrecognized Tiraspol" in an article which emphasized the openness, transparency and glasnost
of the referendum process.
Sergei Bagapsh
, president of Abkhazia
(Abkhazia claims independence from Georgia, but has a disputed status), has said his republic "supports the aspirations of Transdniestria toward independence and its choice of unification with Russia."
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
on 17 September 2006. On that date, Transnistria voted to continue its de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
independence and seek closer ties with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Political climate
Pro-MoldovaMoldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
n organisations announced before the referendum that they would not recognise its results. Ballots for the referendum were reprinted 3 times, as the chairman of electoral commission, Piotr Denisenko, announced a shrinkage of electorate of 7% compared with previous year
Official results
The referendum asked voters:- Do you support the course towards the independence of Transnistria and the subsequent free associationAssociated stateAn associated state is the minor partner in a formal, free relationship between a political territory with a degree of statehood and a nation, for which no other specific term, such as protectorate, is adopted...
with the Russian Federation?
Yes: 97.2% - No: 1.9% - Invalid/undecided: 0.9% - Do you consider it possible to renounce Transnistria's independent status and subsequently become part of the Republic of MoldovaMoldovaMoldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
?
Yes: 3.3% - No: 94.9% - Invalid/undecided: 1.8%
Of the total of 394,861 registered voters, the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 78.6%, substantially more than the 50%+1 required by law to validate the referendum.
On the day of the referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
, no exit poll
Exit poll
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual...
ing was allowed within 25 meters of polling stations, to prevent disruption of voting.
Reactions
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, GUAM
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, and some other countries (Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
) did not recognise the referendum.
According to Russian News Agency RIA Novosti, more than 130 international observers monitored the referendum and reported that "they did not register any procedural violations during the secret balloting," and the representative of the Congress of Russian Communities from Moldova declared that the referendum was held according to international standards. However, no internationally recognised monitoring organisations had observers present.
Viktor Alksnis
Viktor Alksnis
Viktor Alksnis is an ethnic Latvian Russian politician and former Soviet Air Force colonel. He is the chairman of Russian Center of Free Technologies, an organization intended to promote Free Software and open standards in Russia...
, a deputy from the Russian party "Rodina
Rodina
Rodina or Motherland-National Patriotic Union was one of the four parties that controlled seats in the Russian legislature in 2003-2007...
" stated that referendum in Transnistria was held without any violations of legislation and democratic standards.
Viktor Alksnis is known to have previously described the Transnistrian Republic
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
as the base from which the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's restoration would begin.
In the opinion of the Ukrainian foreign ministry, the situation in Transnistria fails to meet the conditions of a free will expression by citizens.
According to the OSCE, the media climate in the Transdniestrian region is restrictive, as authorities there continue a long-standing campaign to silence independent opposition voices and movements.
Althoguh the OSCE decided not to send any observers to monitor the referendum, 130 observers from CIS and Europe and from eleven election monitoring organizations who did attend the referendum had different reactions.
In contrast, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords...
in Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
(HCHRM) claims to have observed a series of infringements at the referendum:
- Groups of activists going into people’s homes, especially in TiraspolTiraspolTiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
and BenderBender- Places:* Bender, Moldova, also known as Bendery or Tighina* Bender, California, a former settlement in Fresno County, California* Bender Bayla District, a district of Bari, Somalia- Fiction :...
districts, asking why they did not come to the referendum, and threatening that after the referendum they will be forced to look for a new home in Romania. - At some voting stations agents dressed in civil or militia uniforms forcing the observers from outside the sections to stay at a distance of 200–250 meters far from these places.
- "Cleaning" of the list of voters by excluding some citizens who previously boycotted elections and referendums held in Transnistria.
- "Electoral tourism" and multiple voting
Karel De Gucht
Karel De Gucht
Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht is a Belgian politician who has been the European Commissioner for Trade since 2010...
(Chairman of the OSCE) expressed an opinion about the "lack of basic requirements for free and fair elections, such as freedom of the media, freedom of assembly and political pluralism, in the region pre-determined the results" and argued that the questions in the referendum are suggestively worded. In a possible manipulation of the public opinion, people are asked to choose between freedom ("free association") and loss of independence ("renounce the Transnistria's independent status"), between reality ("support the course") and possibility ("consider it possible") This formulation could have resulted in a response bias
Response bias
Response bias is a type of cognitive bias which can affect the results of a statistical survey if respondents answer questions in the way they think the questioner wants them to answer rather than according to their true beliefs...
.
Victor Josu, deputy editor-in-chief of Russian-language Moldovan newspaper Moldavskiye Vedomosti, an accredited observer, described the referendum as a successful public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
action (regardless of violations and a lack of recognition) and reported favorably on a comparison between "recognized Chişinau" and "unrecognized Tiraspol" in an article which emphasized the openness, transparency and glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
of the referendum process.
Sergei Bagapsh
Sergei Bagapsh
Sergei Uasyl-ipa Bagapsh was the second President of the Republic of Abkhazia. He was Prime Minister from 1997 to 1999 and was later elected as President in 2005. He was re-elected in the 2009 presidential election...
, president of Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
(Abkhazia claims independence from Georgia, but has a disputed status), has said his republic "supports the aspirations of Transdniestria toward independence and its choice of unification with Russia."
See also
- Elections in Transnistria
- Human rights in TransnistriaHuman rights in TransnistriaThe human rights record of Transnistria has been criticized by several governments and international organizations. The Republic of Moldova, as well as other states and non-governmental organizations claim that the government of Transnistria is authoritarian and has a record of arbitrary arrest...
- Politics of TransnistriaPolitics of TransnistriaPolitics of Transnistria, a de facto independent state situated de jure within the Republic of Moldova in Eastern Europe, takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Transnistria is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the...
External links
- "International observer: Referendum in Transdnestr conforms to international norms" Regnum News
- "Moldova's Trans-Dniester Votes in Referendum on Whether to Pursue Independence" Voice of America News
- Transdnestr independence plebiscite RIA Novosti
- OSCE reaction
- Final monitoring report by international observers
- Transdniester Conflict Was Long In The Making Radio Free Europe