MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin on Monday accused the authorities in Moldova of preventing hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia from voting in an important parliamentary election by providing only two polling stations for voters in the country.
Moldova’s pro-European Union ruling party won a resounding victory over its Russian-leaning rival in the parliamentary election on Sunday, results showed, a major boost for those Moldovans who want to join the EU and break away from Moscow’s orbit.
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moldovans living in Russia, who are traditionally more likely to vote for pro-Russian political forces at home, had been unable to cast their vote.
“Hundreds of thousands of Moldovans were deprived of the opportunity to vote in the Russian Federation due to the fact that only two polling stations were open to them,” said Peskov.
Asked whether Moscow recognised the results, Peskov noted that some political forces in Moldova had spoken of violations.
“First, Moldovans themselves should probably sort this out. As far as we know, some political forces are declaring their disagreement. They’re talking about possible election violations,” he said.
Around 500,000 Moldovan citizens live in Russia, Russian government officials say.
Most large European countries, where fewer Moldovans live than in Russia, had more than two polling stations available for voters on Sunday.
Just over 4,000 votes were cast in Russia, according to the Moldovan authorities, around two-thirds of which were for the main pro-Russian bloc. By contrast, Moldovan citizens living in Germany cast more than 38,000 votes at 36 different polling stations, most of them in support of the ruling party.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Felix LightEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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