The moves made recently in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia to transfer the date of the Bashkan elections in the region and the attempts to amend the electoral legislation are aimed at preventing current Governor Irina Vlah from running in the upcoming elections. The declaring of the Electoral Commission of Gagauzia nonfunctional could be a step towards achieving this objective. The issue was developed in the talk show “Important” on TVC21 channel, IPN reports.

Publicist Veaceslav Craciun said the deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia who initiated discussions on the rise in the minimum voter turnout and on the changes concerning the local Election Commission do not have a clear view on the developments in case the Bashkan elections are not validated owing to the low voter turnout. “They do not take one-two steps forward to anticipate the consequences. But these will not be very good,” stated Veaceslav Craciun.

Political commentator Sergei Monastarly noted the moves were made for the purpose of removing Irina Vlah from the election campaign. There will be a serious confrontation over the initiative to dissolve the local Election Commission given that the control over the commission means control over the vote count results. The deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia intentionally put off the Bashkan elections so as to hamper the electoral process due to the low voter turnout and to attack Irina Vlah if the PSRM and the PDM ultimately form a government coalition.

Stepan Piron, director of the Independent Journalism Center of Gagauzia, said the uncertainty in Gagauzia is due to the uncertainty existing all over the country. The game played at present will produce nothing good. “The candidates who try to attract voters during this short period of time will not obtain a serious score. We will simply look unserious at country level,” he noted.

Deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia proposed amending the electoral legislation. If the changes are adopted, the elections will be validated only if the voter turnout is at least 50%, up from the current minimum turnout of 33%. Under another amendment, the register of voters of ATU Gagauzia, compiled based on the National Register of Voters, will be the only source for drawing up the voter rolls. These proposals will be discussed in the April 25 meeting of the People’s Assembly.

In the March 18 meeting of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, the Bashkan elections were transferred from May 19 to June 30.