CHISINAU, October 20. /TASS/. The presidential elections and referendum on Moldova's accession to the EU are being held with violations, Vasile Tarlev, one the presidential candidates and former Prime Minister (2001-2008) said at the polling station after the vote.

"We have been informed that in a number of hospitals and clinics, medical personnel are collecting ballots from patients en masse. We do not rule out that this is being done with the aim of ballot rigging at the elections and the referendum on accession to the EU. We will check these reports. On the eve of the vote, information was disseminated in the media that Tarlev was excluded from the presidential race. It is clear for what purpose this was done," the candidate said.

Observers briefed about 170 violations

Observers received more than 170 reports of violations in the first two hours of the Moldovan presidential elections and the referendum on the country’s accession to the EU, 34 of which were verified and confirmed, head of the non-governmental organization Promo-LEX, Nikolay Panfil, announced.

"The observation mission received 173 reports of incidents, 34 of which have already been verified and confirmed, the rest are being verified. In particular, seven cases concern the placement of campaign materials at or near polling stations, there are cases of violation of the secrecy of voting, several cases of group voting, in addition, there were violations of the security of the process, for example, the ballot boxes were not sealed," Panfil said at a briefing.

In the morning, presidential candidates and former Prime Ministers of Moldova Ion Chicu and Vasile Tarlev also reported violations during the voting.

The elections and referendum on the country's accession to the EU, initiated by the current head of state Maia Sandu, who is running for a second term, are taking place in Moldova on Sunday.