An overwhelming majority of voters in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region approved the separatist government's bid to eventually join Russia.
Pyotr Denisenko, the head of Transdniester's Central Election Commission, said that 97.1 percent of voters had voted in favor of the region's 16-year-old independence course with the ultimate goal of union with Russia.
Denisenko also said that almost 95 percent of voters said no to reunification with Moldova.
Pro-Russian separatist region declared independence from Moldova in 1990, and separated de facto from Moldova after a short war in 1992.
Moldova and Western countries have vowed not to recognize the referendum. They have called on Transdniester to return to negotiations with Moldova.
Transdniester's independence has not been recognized by any state. But the territory receives strong, albeit unofficial support from Russia. Some 1,200 Russian troops are still stationed in Transdniester, despite Russian commitments to withdraw them by 2002.
(AP, Reuters)
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Breakaway Transnistria votes for joining Russia
Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Sunday September 17, 2006
Chisinau, Moldova- Voters in the breakaway province of Transnistria voted overwhelmingly Sunday in favour of leaving Moldova and joining neighbouring Russia, exit polls showed. Surveys of people leaving polling stations suggested that between 92 and 94 per cent of voters chose the option of independence and eventual entry to the Russian Federation, the Russian news agency Interfax reported late Sunday from Transnistria's chief city, Tiraspol.
?? 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
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Breakaway Transnistria votes for joining Russia
Chisinau, Moldova - Voters in the breakaway province of Transnistria voted overwhelmingly Sunday in favour of leaving Moldova and joining Russia, exit polls showed.
Surveys of people leaving polling stations suggested that between 92 and 94 per cent of voters chose the option of independence and eventual entry to the Russian Federation, the Russian news agency Interfax reported late Sunday from Transnistria's chief city, Tiraspol.
Official results were not expected before Monday.
Turnout of 75 per cent was expected for the referendum in the province, which shares no borders with Russia.
The referendum was criticized by the Moldovan central government as not providing a political solution to the conflict over the province's status, which has been simmering since 1992.
The European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) do not recognize Transnistria and have refused to acknowledge the results of the referendum.
Russia supports the Dniestr regime and has urged other countries to accept the will of the people.
Transnistria President Igor Smirnov, who has led the province for 16 years, called on the approximately 500,000 citizens of the province to consider what benefits Russia could bring them.
The referendum question asked: Do you support the independence of the Moldova Dniestr republic and its eventual free entry into the Russian Federation?
The referendum's alternative was a return to Moldovan sovereignty.
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin criticized the referendum for making a political solution to the conflict more difficult.
Lying east of the River Dnjestr, Transnistria has roughly equivalent populations of ethnic Ukrainians, Russians and ethnic- Romanian Moldovans. Transnistria seceded from Romanian-speaking Moldova after a civil war ending in 1992.
No nation except Russia has recognized Transnistria's independence. The region's economy depends on smuggling.
?? 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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Moldova's independence-seeking Transnistria region votes, but effect is uncertain
The Associated Press
Published: September 17, 2006
TIRASPOL, Moldova Voters in Moldova's breakaway Transnistria cast ballots Sunday in a referendum that will determine whether this separatist region should continue pursuing its goal of joining Russia.
Results were expected Monday. The region's 390,000 registered voters were expected to overwhelmingly back the initiative, which is supported by all of its political parties.
Moldova, which fought a war with Transnistria's separatists in 1992 that killed 1,500 people, has said it will not recognize the results.
The European Union and the United States have also rejected the plebiscite, which critics warned could set a precedent for pro-Russian separatists in other former Soviet republics. Transnistria is Russian-speaking.
The leader of Transnistria, Igor Smirnov, defended the decision to hold the vote despite Western criticism and Russia's cool reaction to it. Russia has supported the region's right to hold the plebiscite but has given no indication that it wants to absorb this economically depressed area, which does not border Russia.
People began trickling in early Sunday to the 262 voting stations as loudspeakers throughout the center of the main city, Tiraspol, blared Soviet-era music and reminders to vote. They stood patiently behind registration tables set up by street - Lenin Street, Marx Street - and many clutched now- useless Soviet passports.
"Union with Russia would bring stability and give us something to look forward to tomorrow," said Natasha Solovyova, 20, as an orchestra warmed up to entertain voters at station No. 230.
The West has urged Transnistria, which is twice the size of Luxembourg, to return to negotiations aimed at giving the region broad autonomy within Moldova, warning that the country's territorial integrity must be respected.
Voters were asked whether they wanted to continue the region's independent course, with the goal of eventual union with Russia, or join Moldova, which many here perceive as a foreign oppressor.
"Moldova has given us nothing," said Valentina Starkova, 58, who cast her ballot with the hope of someday being part of Russia. "It is Russia that protected our right to live on our land, use our language and preserve our traditions."
Moldova's state language is Romanian, but Transnistria, in addition to being Russian-speaking, has a population that is nearly 60 percent ethnic Russian or Ukrainian.
Dozens of Moldovan veterans of the 1992 war gathered Sunday in front of the Russian Embassy in the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, to protest Russia's support for the separatist authorities and to call on Russia to remove its 1,500 troops from the region.
"Transnistria is our land and no one should interfere," said Eduard Maican, a leader of the veterans.
The plebiscite's outcome will be determined by a simple majority of votes. Turnout reached 58.8 percent by mid- afternoon, clearing the 50 percent threshold required for the vote to be considered valid, the Central Election Commission said.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said, however, that the vote will be neither free nor fair, and should not be recognized. It refused to send observers.
The separatists here were inspired by Montenegr'sreferendum, in which residents voted in May for independence from Serbia.
A month later, Montenegro was welcomed into the United Nations. Unlike the Transnistria plebiscite, the Montenegro referendum was authorized by the central government.
"The situation in Transnistria shares no similarities" with Montenegro, the president of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, said Saturday.
Transnistria has its own flag (red and green), currency (the ruble), an army and a president. A giant statue of Lenin stands in Tiraspol's main square, and Russian troops, next to a tank, guard a roadblock near the outskirts of town.
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