Parliament on July 18 passed in the first reading a bill with amendments to 20 legal acts that is designed to ensure greater concordance between the national legislation and the Law on the Special Legal Status of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia. The bill was adopted by the votes of 36 of the 65 MPs attending. The Communist and Liberal MPs didn’t vote. In the first reading, the bills are passed by a majority of votes, IPN reports.

One of the bill authors, Democratic MP Dumitru Diacov said that changes are made to 20 laws as during 20 years the national legislation didn’t contain provisions concerning the special status of Gagauzia. Under the bill, the prosecutor of Gagauz will be named by the prosecutor general, after consulting the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia. The commander of the local carabineer troops will be appointed and dismissed by the Minister of the Interior, at the proposal of the Governor of Gagauzia.

The People’s Assembly of Gagauzia will be able to adopt local laws to promote and develop the customs and traditions of the Gagauz people and to decide how to lay out the territory of Gagauzia and whether to change the purpose of local farmland or not.

The bill appeared as a result of consultations held by a working group created at the initiative of Head of Parliament Igor Corman. After the consultations, it was proposed that a representative of the People’s Assembly should be designated to attend the plenary sittings of the legislative body. Deputy Speaker Sergiu Sarbu has told IPN that this will be done at the initiative of the Speaker and should not be stipulated in a law.

After the vote, the Communist lawmakers announced that they will leave the assembly hall in protest as the voting was rigged. The sitting continued without them for a short time only as it was ascertained that the quorum was not present. It will be continued another day.