The political elites in Gagauzia and a part of the citizens of the Autonomous Territorial Unit (ATU) united not around the candidate of the Shor Party, but against the official Chisinau’s actions, said ex-Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Alexandru Flenchea. For his part, former Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Vlad Kulminski believes the actions of anticorruption officers in balaclavas, who ‘besieged’ the electoral institution in Comrat, were perceived as a threat to the ATU and united the opponent camps in Gagauzia, IPN reports.
Vlad Kulminski said the actions of the officers of the National Anticorruption Center (NAC), who invoked irregularities in the electoral process only after the runoff vote in Gagauzia, were illogical. The alleged illegal financing should have been combated before the start of the election campaign.
“They should have prevented the entrance of ill-gotten gains to politics in the Republic of Moldova. We should not fight the consequences, but the cause, the illegal flows of money that enter the country. The question is, how should we prevent these illegal funds from entering different election campaigns? It is hard to fight the cause after the candidate already won and you come and say that illegal funds had been used since the start of the campaign. The approach is not logical. Chisinau had to choose between continuing the fight against the Shor Party in Gagauzia and not doing this. If Chisinau had continued the fight, there would have been a real risk that Chisinau was confronted not only with Shor in Gagauzia, but also with the whole region. The people said Chisinau does not respect the rights of the ATU and that there is the law of 1994. I didn’t understand why the NAC took those actions as the election wasn’t invalidated anyway. The NAC’s actions united all the forces in Gagauzia,” Vlad Kulminski stated in the program “In Depth” on Pro TV channel.
Alexandru Flenchea also believes that the actions of Chisinau united all the political forces in Gagauzia around the Shor Party’s candidate.
“We should not underestimate the impact of Chisinau’s actions. The actions of Chisinau are what mobilizes the whole Gagauzia and they united the irreconcilable camps. Never until now did the rival camps in Gagauzia make a common front, if only in 1990, when the conflict started. This never happened after 1994. Chisinau’s actions triggered this phenomenon. There could have been anyone else in the place of Shor as it is coalition not for something, but against Chisinau, against what is perceived by the elites in Gagauzia as a threat on the part of Chisinau to their region,” stated Alexandru Flenchea.
The NAC officers seized the registers of voters used in the Bashkan election in Gagauzia over alleged voter corruption and illegal financing of a political party.
“The criminal case we started refers to the illegal financing of a political party and voter corruption. Respectively, we act in accordance within the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. What the Comrat Appeals Court decided refers to provisions of the Electoral Code. The events are the same, but they qualify differently,” said the NAC chief Iulian Rusu. He noted that when the case is completed, it will be sent to court, suggesting that the decisions to validate the gubernatorial elections in Gagauzia can be yet reviewed.
On Monday, the Comrat Appeals Court validated the outcome of the Bashkan election in Gagauzia, confirming the Shor Party’s representative Yevgenia Guțul as the winner.
