“Stolen Elections”: Diaspora Votes as a Means of Massive Fraud

Christian RUSSU

The ruling regime uses out-of-country voting as a fail-safe tool that can ensure the desired result under any circumstances

“Diaspora votes have once again become a lifeline for the country’s European vector”, “pro-European intellectuals are ashamed of their compatriots”, “deprive old ladies of their passports” - this was the thoughts of many pro-government journalists, experts and numerous representatives of civil society on the morning of 21 October. Over the past few years, they have believed in their own uniqueness, lived in their own world on European grants, and, just like the authorities, to their surprise turned out to be terribly far from the people. When the democratic majority in the country expressed distrust in the ruling regime, its servants, a kind of Moldovan “deep state”, were the first to demand to deny the voters their legal right. But to their joy, people were already deprived of it, because their choice was obviously stolen. And the votes of the diaspora were the main component in this another “theft of the century”. We should admit that according Western democratic practice it is not customary to organize elections for diaspora communities around the world. About half a million French citizens do not vote in the United States, a community of millions in Canada is also deprived of this right. Citizens of Italy and Spain have no such opportunity. Romania stands out among others. Our neighbors over Prut have more than once experienced stolen elections through the votes of a diaspora of millions. Thus, thanks to mass ballot violations in diplomatic missions abroad, Traian Basescu managed to be re-elected for a second term. Then in December 2009, Romania went to sleep with one winner, Mircea Geoana, and woke up in the morning with another. Everything happened to the surprise of observers and against the exit polls. “I won. I assure you that the correct vote count will prove it,” he assured. And that’s exactly how it happened. Votes “from the outer perimeter” swung the scales in Basescu’s favor, and observers were struck with the unprecedented turnout of Romanian citizens abroad. For instance, at polling stations in Paris, statistics showed five voters per second! The incumbent government is successfully testing the Romanian experience that in Moldova, considering out-of-country voting as a lifeline and a fail-safe tool that will ensure the desired result under any circumstances. Let me remind you that an unprecedented number of polling stations were opened abroad for this presidential election: 92 more than in the previous one and 85 more than in the parliamentary elections in 2021. In the second round in 2020, more than 263 thousand people voted abroad, and almost three times as many ballots were issued to embassies - 671 thousand. The remaining 408 thousand were unused and withdrawn. This time, more than 850,000 ballots were sent abroad. All these figures give us a good idea of the potential for possible fraud and the organization of ballot stuffing by the staff of our diplomatic missions. After all, they have the passport data of citizens living abroad, and in some cases even the passports themselves. Therefore, we should not be surprised with the cases last Sunday, when a citizen who came to the polling station in Moldova found out that his vote had already been cast an hour ago somewhere in Spain. It is also rather convenient, since the voting and counting of diaspora votes takes place at a time when the results inside the country are already known. In other words, the authorities can carry out controlled violations at polling stations as the time zones move westwards, depriving the opposition of any chance of victory. We can recall how the server of the Central Election Commission “crashed” several times on the night of 21 October, and how the graphs of the voting results at the referendum in favor of the constitutional amendments changed dramatically. Of course, one can count on the integrity of the MFAEI staff and believe that some of them will even record the facts of ballot box violations. However, for the last four years the staff of diplomatic workers abroad has been mopped up so much that we are unlikely to see mass photo-video confirmations of falsifications. Unless a generous reward is promised for such materials. Even so, the authorities and Western partners will surely claim Russian disinformation and deep fakes. In the second round of elections, which will be held on 3 November, the resource of the diaspora will undoubtedly be exploited to the full again. Against this background, it is time to initiate the issue of stopping the practice of mass holding of Moldovan elections abroad. Citizens who have the right to vote should vote in Moldova, at least to see the situation on the ground with their own eyes. This does not mean that all our compatriots in Europe and the United States are unaware of the real situation in the country, because 23% of them voted against the referendum. However, this is the only way to stop falsifications, and at the same time to overcome the division between citizens inside and outside the country, which the ruling regime is taking advantage of.