Talk:Politics of Transnistria

message: This article is outdated, with most of the information based on 2000/2001-era elections. I'd like to add some of the more recent developments. In 2005, there were comprehensive changes to the electoral code. Council of Europe reports recognized the move towards more pluralism. In the December 2005 elections, the opposition took control of parliament. 
More observers recognize this, too. Even though OSCE still boycotted the election, there were several Western European observers from other groups and organizations who didn't. Some of them members of their country's respective parliaments. The errors of the past have largely been corrected. None of the Western observers who were present questioned the result. I can source all of the above. And, for whatever it is worth, CIS-EMO also observed. - Mauco 18:47, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The current article looks more like a stub. It will benefit from any update. --Zserghei 19:04, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I'll try to put something together, with sources, that should be able to pass anyone's POV filter. - Mauco 19:07, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Until people who are against the separatist regime are not allowed to organize and untill freedom of press (including Romanian-language latin script newspapers) is not accepted, we can not talk about political freedom in Transnistria.--MariusM 22:24, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  We are not talking about it, strictly speaking (we can do that fine on Talk pages, but not in mainspace). We, as it were, could be quoting a Council of Europe report (sourced) which recognizes a move towards more pluralism. This is not the same as "political freedom," of course, but just one step in the right direction. As you rightly point out, there is still a long way to go. - Mauco 05:35, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Changes towards political freedom 

message: Why results of 2001 ellections don't add up at 100%?--MariusM 22:22, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't have the authorative answer, but it could be that a number of voters cast a blank ballot. This is sometimes done in protest, as a way of saying "None of the above." Moreover, it could be that some of the votes were invalid. That happens in every election, but usually the percentage of invalid ballots is very small (and certainly not as large as the gap in the 2001 data). I would be curious to find out the real reason, if anyone knows. Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention, MariusM. - Mauco 05:28, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Source is British Helsinki Human Rights Group, a pro-Russian organisation leaded by Oxford scholar Mark Almond. Is an unreliable source, they are not able to do mathematics right.--MariusM 08:39, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Then we need to find a better source. Surely, since this was an election of note, there are more authorative sources such as the CEC. They do not necessarily need to be online (although that would be preferred); the main thing is that they are reliable. At the very minimum, percentages ought to add up to 100% when we include blank votes, spoiled votes, etc. - Mauco 14:16, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Results of 2001 elections 

message: I see that user Marius wishes to include the section regarding the Dignitas incident here. Although I am familiar with the incident and see how it can be relevant to the discussion about Transnistria, I don't see why it should be added here. The way the text is written it represents just an isolated incident of no direct connection to the matter at hand. I am not saying that the detention of the workers could not have had political overtones, but it is much more likely that PMR authorities were just edgy after the terrorist attacks and detained those whom they considered potential threats or culprits. If the arrest was linked to the referendum, that would be a more shadowy theory, one that is not even presented here, nor backed by a source in the competing version. TSO1D 03:59, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with you, T. But apparently Alex Bakharev agrees with MariusM. I hope that they will both join this discussion. What I need to point to Bakharev (and not to MariusM since he already knows it) is that the whole thing is of doubtful nature. Normally I wouldn't object to something like this, but its connection to anything political is strained, at best, and as sourced text it really fails on several counts. The original source is a press release from the very biased Stefan Uritu, who tried to tie it to the referendum but failed. - Mauco 06:19, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: People from Dignitas are not ordinary people, are people whe expressed pro-moldovan feelings. This was recognised even by "Tiraspol Times"  : "On 17 August, Ghenadie Taran, a pro-Moldovan NGO activist from Slobozya, south of Tiraspol, was brought in for questioning in relation to possible involvement in the Tiraspol bombings which took the lives of ten people on 6 July two people on 13 August. Moldovan state press reported that this meant that Taran, a hardline opponent of Pridnestrovie's independence, was not allowed to campaign for his point of view in the referendum". Of course, Transnistrian authorities will never make an official statement that "we arrest Ţăran & comp with the purpose to intimidate pro-moldovan activists" (it seems this is what Mauco and TSO1D expects in order to agree about the relevance of this arrest). We don't need in Wikipedia the accord of Transnistrian authorities. The arrest of pro-Moldovan transnistrian activists is undeniable, it was considered even before the referendum as an attempt to intimidate the pro-moldovan camp (is not only my interpretation), there was no conection between Dignitas and the terrorist act in Tiraspol (in Transnistria's talk page Mauco now denies that any terrorist act occured). I would say, even if Transnistrian authorities were sincerely worried only about the bus explosion, the intimidation effect of pro-Moldovan camp was achieved. Is strange that Transnistrian press (exception Tiraspol Times, which is only on-line, targeted only for foreigners, and published a denial of wrongdoing of Transnistrian authorities) shows no interest about the arrest of Dignitas members, which should be an important subject even if it was link only with the bus explosion. This is showing the lack of press freedom in Transnistria, a pro-Russian preapproved oposition is allowed, but not a pro-Moldovan one.--MariusM 09:37, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Let us focus just on the Dignitas thing and not on the rest of the rant ("lack of press freedom", "pro-Russian preapproved opposition", etc) since we need to keep our eye on the ball and concentrate on the edit of the Dignitas-members' arrest. Lots of people who are involved in politics also commit non-political crimes or become suspects in non-political investigations, and it is wrong in those cases to infer that the police work in such cases is then "political persecution". If you do the crime, you must do the time, and it doesn't matter what kind of NGO membership card you hold. In Moldova, if I am not mistaken we have the head of the Social Democratic party (same party that Dignitas' leader belongs to) who was arrested for cigarette smuggling. Is that proof of political persecution by Moldova? No, it is just proof that the police is doing their job. Same way that they brought these guys in for questioning, and then released them afterwards when they could not tie them conclusively to the crime. If there are no reliable sources that conclusively show that Dignitas was arrested BECAUSE of their pro-Moldovan belief and IN RELATION TO the referendum, then it must go. - Mauco 14:32, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Mauco, you know very well that people from Dignitas didn't commit any non-political crime, even Transnistrian authorities admitted that freeing them. 2-3 days in custody is enough to have the intimidation effect, not only for those 4 guys, but for everybody else who want to become member in Dignitas NGO or to openly advocate reunification of Transnistria with Moldova. Other silent means of intimidation can be used, like making such people to lose their jobs (not only the state sector, but also the private economy is in the hands of pro-separatists, who often came from Russia). Arrest is an extreme measure, it shows that silent mean didn't work with those people.--MariusM 10:22, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dignitas 

message: I asked unprotection as result of the discussions in this talk page, as I believe we agreed to a compromise. As result of Mauco wikistalking me, imediatelly he comment my request telling that we don't have an agreement and oppose unprotection .
After Francis Tyers compromise proposal at 22 November 14:14 regarding the closure of Communist Party office, I didn't see any other argument from Mauco, this is why I believed we can ask for unprotection. At the same time we agreed to include info about the banning of Andrei Safonov's candidature conflict.md is the better source for this, including his claim that he is "the only candidate of the oposition" and about special polling station for guest voters. I consider Mauco's action - refusing to tell in this talk page what is not good about latest compromise proposal but oposing unprotection, as disruptive. Anyhow, I think neither Mauco or Transnistrian government has veto rights here in Wikipedia.--MariusM 09:18, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Requesting unprotection

message: What is the importance of early voting? How does this show that there is anything strange about democracy? Early voting is common all over the world. It is especially important in the United States. I know this from first hand experience, since I used to be a resident. - Mauco 23:13, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Is very easy to falsify votes when you allow multiple days for voting. In the night, ballot boxes can be changed, lists of people who voted also, people can vote several times without posibility for an outside observer to realise. There are posibility for frauds even in a single-day election, allowing multiple voting those posssibilities increase.--MariusM 23:28, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Do you have sources for this? It seems like a blanket accusation against, first of all, the United States ... which, of all the countries in the world, is the place where early voting is most common. As of today, in Transnistria, approximately 1000 people have voted in early voting. Even if you believe that 100% of these are then falsified (I do not believe this, and you do not have any sources to support this fantasy), this tiny number can in no way change the outcome. Your entry is entirely irrelevant and inappropriate, and your so-called "justification" for including it is simply ... well, let me leave it at that, so I can stay polite. - Mauco 23:53, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Early voting 

message: In the International Crisis Group report "Moldova's uncertain future", which can be downloaded from here, at page 10 is written that Renewal officially registered as political party only in June 2006. Some of the things in this report are not true, for example we know that friction between Smirnov and Renewal is not so big and Smirnov received the support of the majority of Renewal voters in december 2006. However, the fact that Renewal was registered only in June 2006 mean that is a fallacy to claim that in December 2005 Renewal received 23 mandates, and even more to claim that Renewal participated in previous elections.--MariusM 12:14, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Renewal party birth date

message: :Polling stations were organised only in those areas of Transnistria under Moldovan government control.
I thought that Transnistria was by definition the parts of Moldova beyond the Dniester not under the control of the Chisinau government.
Could we have a map of the areas with Transnistrian polling stations? 
Could we have a map of the special Moldovan stations for Transnistrians?
--84.20.17.84 15:21, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map 

message: The actual wording of the phrase regarding Moldovan citizenship is not neutral, as is puting doubts about the number of 300000 Moldovan citizens in Transnistria and is promoting only the "official" number of Transnistrian authorities, of 19,4%. Paolo Sartori is not Romanian or Moldovan, his name sounds Italian, I think he is a neutral source. Transnistrian authorities have no credibility in my eyes, however I don't want to include polemics in the article, this is why I believe we should put both numbers with the mention that there is a dispute, and without comments. We don't need 2 sources for Transnistrian authorities, one is enough, I prefer pridnestrovie.net which anyway is linked with Tiraspol Times (all articles from Tiraspol Times are featured at pridnestrovie.net). Tiraspol Times article is self-conflicting - it claims less than 10% want Moldovan citizenship but after that it says that 19,4% have this citizenship - is anybody seriously believing that Moldovan citizenship was given by force to Transnistrians?--MariusM 11:32, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe you should read the sources better. The first one, published in Romania, takes the figure out of thin air. There are no statistics to support it, and it is not a credible source. It is pure junk science. The other source are official. If you don't like the government that publishes them, that does not make them any less official. Regarding the article, it is ALSO a credible source because it gives its references: Both the official data and the poll. According to official data, 19.4% are already citizens. According to the poll, another 10% additionally want the citizenship. That makes it a total of 29.4% which is more or less in line with the number of ethnic Moldovans in Transnistria (discounting those who are too old to care much one way or the other). Mauco 13:08, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Your source it may be "official" (for the unrecognized government of Transnistria) but is not credible. There are a lot of situations when "official" sources were wrong, especially in political sensitive areas. We should not pretend in Wikipedia that governamental Transnistrian sources are the most reliable. We should only report what those sources tell, but explain also the doubts about their accuracy and the existence of conflicting data. You should assume good faith regarding Paolo Sartori, a journalist who don't have the guilt of being Romanian or Moldovan.--MariusM 19:47, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  I am sorry, but you don't get to be the judge of credibility. If you have sources to document why you think that official census data is fudged, please bring them. Until such sources are provided, the information stands just as officially released census data is taken at face value for all other Wikipedia country articles as well. - Mauco 23:21, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

text: I didn't ask to remove the official census data, but to include without derogatory comments also the other source. There is a dispute about the real number of Moldovan citizen in Transnistria and we should show this dispute. I am not alone who consider unreliable the Transnistrian government. Both fake reporting by census official (BTW, detailed data from census were not yet released, this lack of transparency is raising doubts) and people avoiding to report their Moldovan citizenship to transnistrian officials, for fear of having troubles, are reasons why census data can be distorted.--MariusM 09:38, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Moldovan citizenship

message: What? “Kamchatka-raised former metalworker Igor Smirnov”? That is the president, not a random former metalworker. Any source for this statement? --Chricho ∀ (talk) 21:01, 6 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed these words, they belong to the article about Smirnov and should be sourced anyway. Alæxis¿question? 20:29, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Clearly some kind of vandal. Outback the koala (talk) 18:50, 16 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thx to Illythr for adding the source. Alæxis¿question? 19:12, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  “Election results have been contested by some, as in 2001 in one region an undisclosed source reported that Kamchatka-raised former metalworker Igor Smirnov collected 103.6% of the votes.” 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Politics of Transnistria. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070217072904/http://www.pridnestrovie.net:80/2004census.html to http://www.pridnestrovie.net/2004census.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 01:49, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified