Eastbook – blog on EU Eastern Partnership

Transnistria: The First Round Of Presidential Election Won By Yevgeny Shevchuk

Tomasz Horbowski @ 23:54, 15.12.2011

Yevgeny Shevchuk, receiving 38 percent of the vote, won the first round of presidential election in Transnistria. On the second place was the speaker of parliament Anatolyi Kaminski (26 percent), who was supported by Russia. Igor Smirnov, ruling Transnistria for over 20 years, came in third with 24 percent. If the Central Election Commission recognises the election as valid, on Sunday 25 December Shevchuk and Kaminski made it into the second round of voting. 

Elections in the separatist Republic of Transnistria - 11 December 2011, source: president.pmr-gov.org

The result of the former speaker of parliament Yevgeny Shevchuk was quite a sensation in Transnistria. The majority of experts backed that the winner of the Sunday presidential election will be President Igor Smirnov or present speaker of parliament Anatolyi Kaminski supported by the Kremlin. However, the election campaign, full of personal squabbles and competition between Smirnov and Kaminski, could have discouraged the electors from voting for either of the politicians. It is not a surprise that none of the candidates got 50 percent of the vote required for winning the election in the first round. Yet hardly anyone expected Shevchuk’s victory. If the Central Election Commission recognises the election as valid (Smirnov submitted a proposal for invalidating the election), the second round should take place on Sunday 25 December.

Commenting on the results of the Sunday election for RIA Novosti agency, Director of Moscow Institute of National Strategies Stanislaw Belkovski, said that “Shevchuk’s result once and for all ends the era of Smirnov”. He also compared the situation in Transnistria to the recent elections in South Ossetia, which were won by the opposition’s candidate Alla Dzhioyeva. The situation in Ossetia and Transnistria shows that “democratic values win even in unrecognised republics”. Belkovski called the choice of the citizens of Transnistria “a European one”, while Shevchuk’s victory proves that people “have had enough of being the citizens of an unrecognised country, they want it to be legalised and they pin their hopes on Shevchuk”, summarised Belkovski.

Yevgeny Shevchuk; author: Zserghei; source: pl.wikipedia.org

Yevgeny Shevchuk was born in 1968 in Ribnita, a city located on the left bank of the Dniester. He studied in Tiraspol, Great Britain and at State University of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. Between 1992-98 he worked in Transnistrian Ministry of Internal Affairs a chief of Tax Police Service in Tiraspol and deputy director of the second largest enterprise in Transnistria, Sheriff company. Since 2000, Schevchuk is a deputy of Transnistrian parliament and, between 2005 and 2009, he was the speaker of parliament. He resigned from the post in July 2009  to protest against Smirnov’s attempt to revise the constitution. He was succeeded by Anatolyi Kaminski.

Watch a documentary about Shevchuk [ru] made by his supporters:

Translated by Marta Lityńska

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