​GAGAUZIA AUTONOMY HOLDS SECOND ROUND OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION, WITH THREE SEATS REMAINING VACANT IN REGIONAL LEGISLATURE

The second round of elections to the 35-member Popular Assembly was held last Sunday in the southern Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia. The voting led to the election of 15 deputies. With an account of the 17 deputies elected at the first round of voting held two weeks before, the Popular Assembly is still remaining with 3 three vacant seats, regional election commission chairman Ivan Comur said to Infotag.

According to him, in the electoral district #10 (Vulcanesti) the voter turnout was forbiddingly low, so new elections there will be held in 60 days.

An analogous situation is in the village of Besalma (District #13) and in Ceadir-Lunga (District #5), where voting was invalid in both the first and second rounds due to low voter turnouts. There, voting will be organized once again on December 18, said the commission head.

Mihail Serkeli, Chairman of the non-governmental organization Piligrim-Demo, said to Infotag that serious violations of electoral legislation were revealed during the voting.

“For instance, we have registered an effect of voter migration. What does it mean? After the first round, a certain part of voters unexpectedly changed their residence places. For instance, after the first round, Ferapontievca villagers unexpectedly rushed to get registered in Comrat by applying to the local passport office. According to the law, they were included into supplementary voter lists, so on December 4 they voted already in the capital of Gagauzia autonomy. Such voting technique was registered at least in two districts and the number of such voters constituted 15 persons. This number includes only the people reported by district election commissions”, said the organization chairman.

Serkeli mentioned yet another violation of the law: in election district #1 in Comrat, the Piligrim-Demo observers registered not less than 20 instances when citizens coming out polling booths announced loudly whom they had voted for.

“According to a well-known ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, such a ‘will expression’ is a breach of law. There is a historic precedent when during a local election in Gagauzia, it was decided by an election commission to annul one candidate’s ballots – precisely to the amount of such loud declarations made in the candidate’s favor and officially registered by observers and commission members. As for the yesterday’s election, all such declarants voted for the previous Popular Assembly Speaker Dmitrii Konstantinov.

Mihail Serkeli remarked that judging by the statements made by the elected 32 deputies, the new Popular Assembly will have a broad coalition in support of incumbent Bashkan [Governor] of Gagauzia Irina Vlah.

“So far, the coalition includes 17 deputies, among whom are 6 candidates from the Party of Socialists and Dmitrii Konstantinov. A separate segment is made of deputies from the group of influence of brother Kazmaly. Also, there are several deputies with positions so far uncertain”, said the NGO chairman.

In the second election round, seats in the Gagauzia Popular Assembly were won by the autonomy’s ex-Prosecutor Gheorghe Leiciu and scandalously renowned Democratic Party’s ex-activist Sergey Cernev [in June 2014, he delivered several blows in the face of ex-Bashkan of Gagauzia Mihail Formuzal and of Speaker Konstantinov “for their betraying the European interests of Moldova’s”].