| Election Name: | 2006 Transnistrian presidential election |
| Country: | Transnistria |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2001 Transnistrian presidential election |
| Previous Year: | 2001 |
| Next Election: | 2011 Transnistrian presidential election |
| Next Year: | 2011 |
| Election Date: | 10 December 2006 |
| Image1: | Igor Smirnov (2017-10-04).jpg |
| Nominee1: | Igor Smirnov |
| Party1: | Republic (Transnistria) |
| Running Mate1: | Aleksandr Korolyov |
| Popular Vote1: | 212,384 |
| Percentage1: | 83.90% |
| Colour2: | FF0000 |
| Party2: | KPP–PKP |
| Running Mate2: | Anatoliy Bazhen |
| Popular Vote2: | 20,902 |
| Percentage2: | 8.26% |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Igor Smirnov |
| Before Party: | Republic (Transnistria) |
| After Election: | Igor Smirnov |
| After Party: | Republic (Transnistria) |
Presidential elections were held in Transnistria on 10 December 2006. Incumbent President Igor Smirnov won despite opposition having stiffened during the final weeks of the campaign. Three candidates registered to run besides the incumbent Smirnov: Bender MP for the Renewal party Peter Tomaily, Transnistrian Communist Party candidate Nadezhda Bondarenko and journalist Andrey Safonov.
Andrey Safonov's candidacy was at first rejected on the basis of insufficient and allegedly fraudulent signatures,[1] but on 30 November the Tiraspol law court accepted it.
Despite the court ruling, at the Electoral Commission meeting on 27 November Safonov's registration was not accepted with some members claiming that the court decision needed to be challenged at a higher instance. The Commission finally allowed the candidacy on 5 December.
Starting with 7 December, early voting was allowed for those persons for whom it was impossible to come to the polls on 10 December.[2]
Andrey Safonov, one of the opposition candidates, suggested that election results were rigged in favour of the incumbent leader. He claimed that there was a strange difference between the exit polls results and the official results.[3] “It is not clear to me why, according to exit polls conducted by the Pridnestrovian Independent Center for Analytical Research “New Century”, President Smirnov received 63.34%, and according to official data this figure is much higher. At the same time, it is not clear to me why dataCEC1.6% voted against all. Firstly, more than 16% refused to answer questions on voting day - I think they clearly did not vote for Smirnov. Secondly, the level of protest voting in the PMR is generally traditionally higher,” said opposition candidate Andrei Safonov.[4] According to an article by the ethnic Russian researcher from Moldova Alla Skvortsova, "polls and elections in the PMR may to some extent have been rigged".[5]