Tiraspol, November 3. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Moldova starts the second round of the presidential elections. A new vote will take place on November 15. The experts predicted that everything would not end in one round long before the start of the election campaign. But for us, Pridnestrovians. the important thing is that the current electoral cycle shows that the attitude of a certain part of the Moldovan society towards us has not changed in 30 years. The same caveman division into friends and foes, fear of the "Pridnestrovization of Moldova", lack of understanding that we are not the population of the colony, but neighbors are in use. This was guessed in what had been happening on election day on the roads leading from Pridnestrovie to the polling stations.
There were 42 of them for the citizens of Moldova residing in Pridnestrovie. They were located in border settlements. But judging by the number of those who came to the elections, Pridnestrovians with RM passports had no enthusiasm. Only 14,709 people decided to cross the border to take part in the electoral process on Sunday. This is only 1.2% of the total number of voters.
The rainy weather might be the reason for that. It is possible that the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role, although, despite the border quarantine restrictions, it was possible to freely leave for Moldova without the PMR Headquarters` consent. And yet, it seems to us, the main reason for such low activity is that the overwhelming majority of Pridnestrovians are completely indifferent to Moldovan politics. Over the years, Pridnestrovians learned that the elites from the right bank can bring nothing but treachery. Meanwhile, the passport of the RM in Pridnestrovie is exclusively needed for traveling to other countries or medical treatment in Chisinau.
However, those who nevertheless decided to take advantage of the border quarantine exemptions and check in at polling stations according to the rules, faced unpleasant incidents.
In the morning, participants in the war against Pridnestrovie set up unauthorized roadblocks. It is interesting that the combatants announced their intentions on the eve of voting day. “We do not want the left bank of the Dniester to determine our new destiny for four years ...,” one of the protesters said.
The combatants, in violation of the law, stopped cars and regular buses passing from Pridnestrovie to Moldova on election day. The passengers were asked where they were going and who they intended to vote for. In many cases, they simply would not get out of the way, thus violating their right to freedom of movement. At the same time, the Moldovan police did nothing, law enforcement officers only observed the lawlessness on the outside.
It is symbolic that pressure on Pridnestrovians was exerted by those who came to our cities and villages in 1990-1992 to establish the so-called constitutional order. In the early 90s, they also divided the inhabitants of the then Soviet Moldavia into "good masters" and "strangers-mankurts". It was against this segregation that the Pridnestrovians rebelled then. And what do we see today? When observers from Russia - Deputies of the State Duma drew the combatants' attention to the inadmissibility of blocking public transport, the participants in the war against Pridnestrovie aggressively told them "not to interfere" and "go back to Russia!"
These are the same people who, in the center of Chisinau, promised to throw Pridnestrovians` decapitated corpses at the parliamentary steps quite recently. It would be one thing if there were only these marginalized who messed around on the roads on election day. Similar actions were taken by the Deputies of the legislative body of Moldova, along with civil activists.
“I must be with my people and not allow the separatists to influence the democratic processes of the Republic of Moldova,” MP Igor Grosu told observers from Russia. He even used his own car to block the road to Varnitsa.
Reading the numerous media reports about blocking roads, one involuntarily thinks about how exactly the same “patriots” presented Pridnestrovians outside the law 30 years ago. They beat our Deputies in front of parliament because they defended their voters` interests. They also signed up as volunteers, promising to "throw out the invaders" from the territory, which had been an industrial appendage and the main source of money for the right bank for all 50 years of the Union republic's existence. Decades later, these same people call Pridnestrovians strangers. The society of Moldova has not been cured of the caveman complexes, although it had already gone through so many shocks that natural purification through pain has been suggesting itself for a long time. The consequences of disasters - the split of the country, loss of identity, a decline in living standards, rampant corruption - have not been a lesson for them. But the main result of Pridnestrovians` participation in the presidential elections of the neighboring country was a clear understanding that the residents of Moldova themselves have not seen their compatriots in the residents of the PMR for a long time.
Nikolay Sirbu
