IPN analysis: The ‘unprecedented queue’ of candidates and the fragmentation of the political class or the new format of political campaigning are just innovations of the elections for the Bashkan (Governor) of Gagauzia, which make them unique today already, one month before the first round of the elections.
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All the elections were held according to a similar scenario, both as regards the legislative procedures and the logic of political confrontations. At the same time, each election campaign has its own image – a series of circumstances that make it unrepeatable. Below we will analyze the main particularities of the Bashkan elections, owing to which these elections will remain in the region’s history.
Twelve contenders
The most evident distinction of the current campaign preceding the Bashkan elections is the high number of candidates. On February 18, one day before the deadline for submitting documents for being registered as election runners, the Comrat Election Commission issued a certificate to the 12th and last candidate. Until now, it was the 2002 election that was considered the electoral race with the largest number of participants. It involved six contenders. Now the number of runners is twice larger. For a region with 160,000 people, this has both pluses and minuses.
The negative aspect of this picture derives from the fragmentation of Gagauz society and the inexistence of a prestigious leader able to strengthen local groups of influence and clans around oneslef. The positive side of this situation is the fact that new Gagauz elite with great potential appeared. For such a small autonomous unit, a large number of potential leaders is important both in terms of the potential of staff and of the positive influence of competition on the political struggle.
From splits to new format
A particularity of the contemporary Gagauz policy, which was identified in the current election campaign, is the splits that affected practically all the political camps. The team of the Movement “United Gagauzia” was the first to be hit by disagreements. Its candidate Valerii Ianioglo was unable to secure the unanimous support of his comrades. Another representative of the “United Gagauzia” Serghei Buzadji decided to carry out his own election campaign. Both of the candidates a year ago considered themselves members of the team of the current Bashkan Mihail Formuzal.
Another favorite of the elections, Irina Vlah, at the very start of the election campaign announced her withdrawal from the PCRM and her decision to take part in the elections as an independent candidate. The Party of Socialists threw its support to this candidate, but this decision provoked a boycott among the members of this party’s organization in Gagauzia. As a result, the party’s administration preserved its position and dissolved the local organization, whose activists became involved in the campaign of candidate Dmitri Croitor.
Ultimately, the third force that claims an important result in the elections – the Democratic Party – witnessed the simultaneous involvement of several of its former and current representatives. Thus, alongside Nicolai Dudoglo, who is considered one of the main candidates of the Democrats, the electoral race involves the PDM’s representatives from Vulcanesti and Ciadir-Lunga, Serghei Cernev and Oleg Kaiky. Many consider these candidates are ‘technical’ figures whose role is to attract votes and ‘transmit’ them to the main contender on the eve of the elections, while candidate Aleksandr Stoianoglo, who left the PDM a month ago, is perceived as a rival of the Democratic group. It should be noted that Dmitri Croitor, who has had close relations with the PDM since the end of the 1990s, is considered a ‘reserve’ or a ‘masked’ candidate of this party.
In general, we witness the reformation of the political class of the autonomous unit. Its first new configurations will become evident after the first round of elections, when many teams will make public decisions concerning their support for one of the two contenders.
Internet does its job
The active use of the social networking sites and the Internet media in general, as a propaganda source, is an interesting feature of the current elections. Currently, most of the favorites either acquired Facebook pages and accounts or intensified those they possessed. Many of the candidates answer in video format beneficiaries’ questions, design personal websites and carry out propaganda activities designed for the young users of the Internet. Besides, the active spirit is also evident due to such traditional instruments as the ‘analytical information portals’, which exhibit their relations with a politician or another in the election campaign.
The intense use of the Internet has a great influence on the election campaign. It is important to mention that according to the National Bureau of Statistics, Gagauzia ranks first among the Moldovan districts by the development of the Internet. The Internet use rate per 100 houses in the region is about 40%. By this indicator, Gagauzia comes after only Chisinau and the municipality of Balti. The high Internet penetration rate led to the diversification of the sources of information and, respectively, to a higher level of information of the residents. This directly influences the political culture of the Gagauz voters and the quality of the election campaigns of the contenders. Ten years ago, the discrediting ‘orders’ against an opponent could cause certain speculation and become a subject for discussion in the village bars, but now such articles can be perceived as something of a poor quality that discredit rather the one who places the ‘order’.
At national level, the Internet, as ground for electoral propaganda, was first widely applied in the election campaign of the spring of 2009. This thing appeared first in Gagauzia and it is presumed that the experience of Gagauzia will be used in the local elections by other regions of Moldova too.
Veaceslav Craciun, IPN
