Elections in Gagauzia went smoothly, but with violations

The observers who monitored the second round of voting for the Governor of Gagauzia held on December 26 said the elections were conducted in a calm atmosphere, but there were identified violations of the electoral legislation, Info-Prim Neo reports. The irregularities discovered by the Association for the Promotion of Legal Clinics of Moldova include the presence of two persons in the polling booth, campaigning near polling places and several cases of intimidation of observers. The observers said a person younger than 18 tried to vote at a polling place in Cazaclia commune. Also, there was identified one case of violation of the right to secret vote. At polling place No. 2 in Comrat, a person wanted to vote with the identity card of another person. The Association’s team that monitored the elections in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia consisted of 73 observers who worked at the 64 poling places set up in the region. The monitoring of the elections for the Gagauz Governor formed part of the promotion of free and fair elections in Moldova program carried out within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. The second round of voting was won by independent candidate Mihail Formuzal. The race involved independents Nicolai Dudoglo and Mihail Formuzal and Communist candidate Irina Vlah, who was eliminated in the first round of voting.