Presidential elections were held in

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

on 12 December 2021 with early voting starting on 6 December 2021. Two candidates were able to register to participate in the elections — incumbent president

Vadim Krasnoselsky Vadim Nikolayevich Krasnoselsky (; ; born 14 April 1970) is a Transnistrian politician who is the 3rd and current President of Transnistria. Previously, he served as a member of the Supreme Council of Transnistria from the 7th district, as 6th ...

, and

Sergey Pynzar Sergey Pynzar is a Transnistrian lawmaker of the Grigoriopol District legislature. He ran against President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *Presi ...

, who came in second in 2016. President

was reelected with a margin so important that the results, that were expected to be announced the following day on 13 December 2021, were announced in the evening. Voter turnout was very low, but not low enough to invalidate the results of the election.

Candidates

, winner of the 2016 election and incumbent President, ran for re-election. He was opposed by

, a farmer and lawmaker of the Grigoriopol district legislature.

Conduct

Only election observers from Russia monitored the election. Moldova requested that other nations not observe the elections because it might legitimize Transnistria's disputed status. Measures to facilitate voter turnout were taken following the very poor turnout to the September

2021 Russian legislative election Legislative elections were held in Russia from 17 to 19 September 2021. At stake were 450 seats in the 8th State Duma, 8th convocation of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly. Going into the election ...

s in which two-thirds of Tranistrian citizens had the right to vote, as they hold Russian passports.

Early voting Early voting, also called advance polling or pre-poll voting, is a convenience voting process by which voters in a public election can vote before a scheduled Election Day (politics), election day. Early voting can take place remotely, such as v ...

was put in place on election week. The elections were criticized due to Krasnoselsky’s main competitors not being allowed to participate. According to Freedom House "Formally, opposition parties are allowed to operate. However, owing to government repression, opposition candidates and parties have few realistic opportunities to gain power through elections... Opposition candidates were prevented from contesting the December 2021 presidential election, which Krasnoselsky won by a wide margin amid low turnout." There were also allegations of electoral fraud.

Results

Turnout was significantly lower than in the 2016 elections. However, the 25% threshold below which elections are not deemed valid was thus averted. There was a significant increase in the number and percentage of invalid votes, from 4,682 (1.92%) in the 2016 presidential elections to 12,520 (8.75%) in 2021.

International reactions

* – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania declared that it did not recognize the elections in Transnistria and that it supported a long-lasting and peaceful resolution of the

Transnistria conflict The Transnistria conflict (; ; ) is an ongoing frozen conflict between Moldova and the unrecognized state of Transnistria. Its most active phase was the Transnistria War. There have been several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the conflict ...

and Moldova's territorial integrity.

References

{{Transnistrian elections Elections in Transnistria

Presidential Presidential may refer to: * "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ * Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida * Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s * ...