Governor elections are taking place in Gagauzia today. As many as 105,000 people eligible to vote are expected to cast their ballots in them. The 65 polling places established in the autonomous unit will work from 7am until 9pm.
The head of the Comrat Election Commission Valentin Cara has told IPN that each polling place was provided with a mobile ballot box. The persons who cannot go to the polling place for health reasons can ask to be allowed to vote at the place where they are today as well, by 3pm. The applications for the mobile ballot box must be accompanied by a health certificate.
To be able to vote, the electors must present the valid identity card (with the accompanying loose leaf) or a temporary identity card that includes the domicile. The conscript soldiers will present their permits. The persons who do not have valid identification papers can ask for a temporary identity card on the election day as well. The document issuing sections of the region work today too.
A number of 106,000 ballots were printed for the elections. 100,000 of them are in Russian, while the rest are in the Romanian and Gagauz languages.
The electors will put the stamp voted next to one of the ten candidates running in the elections. These are: Valerii Ianioglo, Ruslan Garbaly, Nicolae Dudoglo, Irina Vlah, Oleg Garizan, Alexandru Stoianoglo, Serghei Chernev, Dumitru Croitor, Ilia Anastasov, and Leonid Dobrov.
If no candidate wins a simply majority of votes in the first round of voting, the second round will be held in two weeks, on April 5. The second round involves the two candidates who polled the largest number of votes in the first round.
The elections will be overseen by over 60 international observers. There will also be local observers and observers of local NGOs and of the election runners.
For the elections to be validated, the voter turnout must be at least 50% of the people written on the voter rolls.
Simultaneously with the Governor elections, elections to choose the own representatives to the People’s Assembly are held in the constituencies Congaz and Gaidar. Vitalie Chiurcciu, Ivan Telpiz and Petru Ianacov are the candidates running in Congaz, while in Gaidar there is only contender - Zinaida Popaz.
