31 candidates for Gagauzia elections

31 candidates registered for election to the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, which will take place on September 9. Most of the applicants are from the Party of Communists. Tens of other applications are still under examination. Candidate registration started on July 9. Svetlana Mironova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission of Gagauzia, told Info-Prim Neo that until now representatives from 5 Parties have applied, and members of 4 out of the 5 have been registered. 20 candidates affiliated with the Party of Communists have applied, and all of them registered successfully. 9 members of the Party of Socialists applied, and 5 were registered. Both candidates from the Party of Democrats, who applied, were registered. From the Party of Social-Democrats applied 7 people, 4 of which were registered. 16 members of the Party of Liberal-Democrats applied, but none of them have been registered yet. Meanwhile, 100 individuals applied as unaffiliated candidates. 42 of them already collected the necessary amount of signatures. The chair of the Commission explains that those who have already been registered had their applications submitted before Thursday, July 12. The other files are under examination, and will be ruled upon on Wednesday, July 18. The application deadline is August 9, 5:00pm. Electoral expenses were estimated at 1.7 million lei. The ballots will be printed in three languages: the official State language, Russian, and Gagauzian. 62 voting stations will be opened throughout the ATU of Gagauzia. The electoral commission instructed local authorities to keep in mind access for disabled people when choosing a location for the polling station. At the September elections voters will choose the 35 members of the Unit’s legislative body. The members of the People’s Assembly are elected through direct voting, for a 4-year term. Parties, electoral blocs, and other socio-political organizations may appoint only one candidate per electoral precinct, which are 35 in total. In precincts where none of the candidates will accumulate more than 50% of the votes, round-offs will be helds.