Elections in Gagauzia better reflected by media

Starting November, a reduction of the implication of national audiovisual stations has been registered, in what concerns supporting the incumbent governor Gheorghi Tabunscic, as part of the electoral campaign for Gagauzia’s governorship. This was the general conclusion of the fourth monitoring report of the Gagauzian electoral campaign, made public on Wednesday, November 22, at a press conference. According to the report, in the period from November 11 to November 17, NIT TV channel did not make any references concerning the candidates, Radio Moldova kept a neutral attitude, and Moldova 1 favored indirectly Tabunscic in a single news bulletin broadcasted in Russian and Romanian. Regional stations, Radio and TV Gagauzia, adopted a similar attitude. Also, public regional newspapers proved a balanced tendency in the last monitoring period, the report states. Still, there are newspapers which continued to indirectly support the present governor – “Znamea” (drawing negative aspects of Mihail Formuzal), “Vesti Gagauzii” and, more pronounced, the nationally spread “Nezavisimaia Moldova”. The attitude towards the other candidates is rather neutral, except for the independent newspaper “Nastoiascee Znamea”, which supports Formuzal and has a critical position concerning the incumbent governor. Generally speaking, as it was observed in the earlier monitoring periods, public funded newspapers avoid publishing critical materials against candidates, preferring instead more publicity and electoral education materials, the report mentions. Nicolae Negru, representative of the Independent Journalism Centre, believes that this attitude was influenced by the visit of the EU ambassadors in the region. Paul Strutzescu, head of the Moldovan League for the Protection of Human Rights (LADOM), declared that in the last monitoring period, some positive tendencies have been observed in the activity of the Central Electoral Commission of Gagauzia. Although the structure gains more experience, still a number of negative tendencies have been registered, as working out and adopting some decisions in conflict with the legislation, as well as a closed dialogue with the press, tolerance towards the activity of some candidates and countering the activity of others, usually representing the opposition. On the other hand, LADOM expressed its worries concerning the implication in some cases of the public force bodies in the electoral process. “Free and Fair Elections of the Governor of Gagauzia ” project is financed by the Eurasian Foundation, Mission to Moldova, with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA/ASDI) and the National Fund for Democracy, USA.