Case concerning rigging of Gagauz elections to be sent to Supreme Court of Justice

The trial in the case regarding the fixing of the elections for the Governor of Gagauzia will last for an undetermined period. On January 19, a supporter of Nicolai Dudoglo, the mayor of Comrat who ran in the elections, challenged the competence of the panel of judges of the Comrat Court of Appeals that is dealing with this case. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the president of the Comrat Court of Appeal Elena Lazareva said the judges were accused of being partial and of groundlessly rejecting some of the complaints. They were also accused of yielding to the pressure exerted by Mihail Formuzal, who won the elections, according to the preliminary results. Elena Lazareva said that on January 20 the case will be sent to the Supreme Court of Justice as the Comrat Court of Appeals does not have another panel of judges that could pronounce on the challenge. “We consider that this challenge is unfounded and is aimed at extending the trial for reasons that we do not know. However, we can do nothing in such situations,” said Elena Lazareva. She also said that Wednesday's hearing lasted from 6am until 6pm and there were examined all the complaints filed by the representatives of Nicolai Dudoglo. The trial started on January 5. Nicolai Dudoglo claims that the elections were rigged and demands that they be rerun. For his part, Mihail Formuzal said the elections were democratic and the mayor of Comrat lost them.