​GAGAUZ AUTONOMY HOLDS BASHKAN ELECTIONS

On Sunday, April 30, the elections of the governor of the Gagauzian autonomy, Bashkan, are being held. The mandate of the current Bashkan, Irina Vlah, is coming to an end, and she cannot run for the post, having held it for two mandates.

All 65 polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m., and the elections began without delays and in a calm atmosphere.

There were 92,516 people on the electoral rolls. More than 90% of the ballots in the Bashkan elections were in Russian. According to the Central Election Commission of the autonomy, 93,451 ballot papers will be printed for the first round of elections (including 1% reserve), including 3,769 in Gagauz, 3,398 in Romanian and 86,284 in Russian.

There are eight candidates for the position of the Gagauz Bashkan. They are Mihail Formuzal and Dmitrii Croitor, who have already served as Bashkan. Former mayor of Comrat and member of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia Nicolai Dudoglo, former deputy Grigori Uzun, depuities Victor Petrov and Serghei Cimpoes, former member of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia, Serghei Cernev, and candidate Evghenia Gutul from the Shor Party are also running for the position of candidate. With the exception of Gutul, all candidates are running as independents. At the same time, Uzun is supported by the Party of Socialists and is campaigned for by its leader, Igor Dodon. At the same time, the Socialist MPs Vasile Bolea and Alexandru Suhodolschi support the candidacy of Victor Petrov.

The party's electoral programs do not differ much from each other. All of them are aimed at confrontation with the present leadership of Moldova and support the intensification of cooperation with Russia.

Voting is monitored by 75 international observers. Most of them represent the embassies of Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, France, Poland, Lithuania, Great Britain, the United States, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and the European Union. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova did not invite Russian representatives to observe the elections.

Experts are restrained in their forecasts, and opinion polls show a strong competition between the candidates and a small gap between them. At the same time, they believe that the "main competitor" in the elections is low voter turnout. The People's Assembly intended to reduce voter turnout, but did not do so. Thus, according to the legislation, for the elections of the Bashkan to take place, the voter turnout should be higher than 50%. According to the Election Commission of Gagauzia, 92,519 thousands voters are registered in the autonomy. In order to be valid, almost 47 thousand people are to participate in the elections.

According to the data by 12.00 p.m., 23,332 voters (24.6%) took part in the elections. The most active electoral district, according to the Central Election Commission of the autonomy, is Cioc-Maidan village (turnout 36%), the most passive - Congazcic village (17%).