The Central Election Commission (CEC) in Comrat on Thursday was to pronounce on the General Police Inspectorate’s statement about the alleged acts of voter corruption committed by the staff of the Șor Party. But the meeting wasn’t held because a quorum was not present. The Commission’s head Yana Kovalenko noted that there is no relevant evidence.

Yana Kovalenko was contacted by IPN for a comment, but she was unavailable. The local press reported that the head of Gagauzia’s CEC stated that the General Police Inspectorate’s notification is informative in character and does not contain evidence.

As to the warning issued by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova, Yana Kovalenko said the electoral legislation of Gagauzia does not prevent the private individuals from donating at most six average monthly salaries.

On May 7, the National Anticorruption Center announced that a number of searches were carried out in a case of corruption of voters by representatives of a political party to make them vote for a particular electoral contender at the election in Gagauzia. It was determined that each activist was paid by 15,000 lei for influencing 30 electors to vote for the Șor Party’s candidate. Among the violations of which the electoral staff of the Șor Party’s candidate is accused are the organized transportation of voters to polling stations for money, placing of electoral posters in prohibited places and acceptance of money that was allegedly received from an organized criminal group, without this being declared to the CEC. No one was arrested.

A runoff vote is to be held in ATU Gagauzia to elect the Bashkan (Governor) of the region on May 14 as none of the candidates who competed in the April 30 election gained more than half of the cast votes. The runoff will involve the contenders who polled the largest number of votes, namely Grigorii Uzun, who runs independently, but is supported by the Party of Socialists, and Yevgenia Guțul, who represents the Șor Party.