The legislative body of the Gagauz autonomy decided to bring together local representatives of all levels on February 22 for a vote to endorse the results of the recent referendum, IPN learned from the president of the People's Assembly Dmitri Constantinov.
The decision to gather the local representatives of all levels, including members of the Gagauz parliament in the 1990s, was adopted on Friday, after the People's Assembly unanimously approved the results of the February 2 referendum. Dmitri Constantinov confirmed that all the 35 Assembly's members voted to validate the plebiscite.
The decision to hold the referendum had been ruled unlawful by the Comrat Court, and the authorities in Chisinau criticized the move as falling outside the autonomy's authority.
The eventuality of such an assembly was predicted in an IPN commentary published on January 13. “It's been reported that the autonomy's parliament will consider calling a pre-referendum “meeting of deputies of all levels”, a sort of popular assembly bringing together executive and legislative leaders, district representatives and councilmen from across the autonomy. Notably, the last time Gagauzia held such assemblies was almost a quarter of century ago. This was precisely the forum that adopted the decisions which led to the crack in the relationship between Chisinau and Comrat in the early nineteen-nineties. Thereafter, threats to assemble such meetings have been voiced each time the relationship tensed up.”, read the commentary.
