Free buses bring Moldovan citizens living in Russia to vote in presidential election
Several organised buses with Moldovan citizens living in Russia have arrived in Moldova over the past two days to vote in the second round of the presidential elections; according to unofficial reports, the trip was completely free of charge.
Source: Moldovan news outlet TV8, European Pravda; General Inspectorate of Police in Moldova
Details: It was stated that before the second round of elections, Moldovan citizens living in Russia were brought to Moldova on specially organised rides, and the hauliers did not have any contracts for this transportation.
Quote from the Moldovan Police: "We note that this is an organised transportation carried out with certain interests in mind."
Despite this, these people will be allowed into Moldova anyway, as they are Moldovan citizens.
The IPN news agency, citing sources from the customs service and border police, wrote that there had been three buses with about 150 passengers.
They travelled by plane from Russia to Istanbul, where they were met by three buses with Moldovan registration numbers, taken to Bulgaria, where they switched to buses with Bulgarian registration, which eventually arrived at the Cahul-Oancea border crossing.
These anonymous sources report that they did not pay for the flight or the bus seat and were allegedly offered a free trip to Moldova to vote in the second round of the presidential election.
It should be noted that in this year's presidential election, Moldova organised only two polling stations for its citizens in Russia. On the day of the first round, footage of huge queues outside them emerged. The Moldovan Foreign Ministry replied that this could be the result of organised transportation of voters to the polling stations.
Background:
- On 3 November, Moldova will conduct the second round of presidential elections, featuring incumbent President Maia Sandu and pro-Russian candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo. Postal voting for this round has already concluded.
- In the first round of voting, Maia Sandu secured 42.37% of the votes, while Alexandr Stoianoglo, the candidate from the pro-Russian Party of Socialists of Moldova, garnered 26.02%. However, in the second round, he has a chance to win if he collects the votes of all those voters who want to vote "against Sandu".
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