On May 22, Chamber of Appeal of Komrat (capital of Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia) to consider the documents related to and to take a decision over the second round of elections of the Governor (Bashkan) of ATU Gagauzia (Gagauz Eri), held on May 14.
The second round of elections has been held between Evgeniya Gutsul, supported by SHOR Party, and Grigoriy Uzun – supported by Socialists’ Party of Moldova (PSRM). According to the results announced by the Central Election Committee of Gagauzia on May 15, Evgeniya Gutsul won the runoff with 27 374 (52, 34%) of votes. Although, the Gagauz people expressed their will by electing the next Governor of ATU, the results of the elections became the stumbling-stone between central and local authorities.
After the final results were announced, central authorities have accused the winner over illegal financing of the elections campaign and bribing the voters. Representatives of Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova forcibly seized the ballots, with participation of special security forces. People’s Assembly of Gagauzia held an extraordinary emergency meeting and, as result, decided to recognize the results of the elections: “I think this should also enlighten the leadership: they should begin to understand that the will of the people should come first. We ourselves – many – are dissatisfied with the election results, but to go against the people is to spit in their faces… Gagauz people will not do what the center wants. We will no longer hold elections. We have decided and we will go with the elected Governor (Bashkan)”, the Chairman of People’s Assembly of Gagauzia Dmitry Konstantinov said. He stated, that no complains, either from local representatives or from international observers, has been submitted and registered by the Central Election Committee.
The National Anti-Corruption Center reported that “as part of the special investigative measures, a reasonable suspicion arose that the electoral lists included persons who at the time of the elections could be outside our country as well as dead people, therefore they could not physically participate in the election process”.
Former Interior Minister Victor Catan stated that the criminal procedure legislation states that it is impossible to build an accusation on assumptions only; there must be evidence that would prove that such cases really took place, otherwise, the operation that took place in Komrat is illegal and leads to the conclusion that central authorities interfered in the local electoral process.
The former Prime Minister of Moldova, Vlad Filat, also expressed his opinion on the crisis in ATU Gagauzia, stating that Gagauzia is a very specific region and central authorities should take this into consideration to build up an effective dialogue with local bodies: “The authorities must understand that here they are no longer dealing with Shor’s candidate. This is their relationship with all autonomy. People did not rally around the candidate of Shor, they rallied around the interests of autonomy and the fact that Chisinau interferes with their rights”.
Though, the fact that the Bashkan of Gagauzia is also ex officio a member of the government of the country with all the relevant attributes, including access to state secrets, forced center to go to extremes and to prevent the representative of “unwanted” SHOR Party to be presented in the government bodies. Is there a struggle with corruption and illegal actions behind such an operation or the fear of Moldova’s authorities to “lose” the region on the wake of pro-EU course of ruling party – a good question to discuss?
In any case, the results of the Bashkan elections 2023 became the problem of the national scale and the decision to be made on May 22 will surely affect the developments in the country.
