IPN analysis: The authorities of Gagauzia count on the fact that they will obtain a quota in Moldova’s Parliament. At the same time, the vulnerability of the bill against political corruption enables to see in the initiative of the Gagauz officials a political game of certain parties, instead of care for the autonomous unit’s interests.

5% - five MPs

The autonomous territorial unit of Gagauzia asked the central authorities of Moldova to grant a quota of seats in the country’s Parliament to it. The legislative initiative with relevant amendments to the Electoral Code was sent to the supreme legislative body, in the name of the People’s Assembly of the region, last week.

The main objection of the Gagauz lawmakers to the current electoral system is the fact that it does not ensure the representation of the Gagauz people in Parliament and, consequently, participation in the management of the state affairs. Though four deputies from the autonomous region are represented in different factions in Moldova’s Parliament from the very beginning, the People’s Assembly says the current situation represents a consequence of the political conjuncture and such representation is not at all guaranteed at legislative level.

“From territorial viewpoint and by the number of inhabitants, Gagauzia represents 5% of Moldova.  Therefore, the request to be able to choose at least five MPs of the 101 in uninominal constituencies, made by the autonomous unit, it is absolutely logical,” deputy Ivan Burgudji, who is one of the authors of the initiative, said when presenting the bill in a meeting of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia.

Autonomous region is a district as all the others

The initiative concerning the representation of Gagauzia in Parliament, as most of the initiatives coming from the southern region, caused a negative reaction in the Moldovan community of experts. For example, constitutional law expert Teo Carnat said that these requests are illegal.

“Under the Constitution, the autonomous region is a district as any of the other 32. It’s impossible to allocate separate seats in Parliament to it as we have only one electoral constituency in the county. From this viewpoint, the given requests are purely political, aimed at worsening and destabilizing the situation in Moldova,” the expert said in an interview for the portal NOI.md.

Interests of Gagauzia or political movement?

Judging by the developments, the prospects of the Gagauz initiative being supported in Parliament are not great. Last spring, when debates on the necessity of drafting the given bill only started in the region, representatives of the Liberal Democrat Party perceived the proposal as a political movement launched by their opponents-colleagues from the Democratic Party. Speaking on the public TV channel of Gagauzia, Liberal-democratic MP Veaceslav Ionita accused the Democrats of involving the Gagauz people in the promotion of their party goals.

“Any party must have its own interests, but I think it is not right to use a group of people, in this case an ethnic group - the Gagauz people – to promote the narrow party interests,” he stated.

The position of the Communist Party will most probably not differ much from that of the Lib-Dems as there are deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, who are affiliated to the Democratic Party (PDM), behind this initiative.

As regards the Democrats, they benefit from the possibility of playing the role of persons who are lobbying for the interests of Gagauzia, strengthening their image among the residents of the autonomous unit. They surely realize that their support in this case is not enough for adopting the bill. The Gagauz Democrats resorted to a ‘pass’ and their elder party colleagues will most probably not give up the initiated scheme. Actually, the PDM made no comment or official approaches in this respect yet.

Theory and practice

We may agree with the deputies of the People’s Assembly that the existing electoral system does not offer optimal conditions for the representation of the Gagauz people in Moldova’s Parliament. Practice shows that the number of MPs from the south depends on the decision of the political leaders to include representatives of the autonomous unit in certain parts of the electoral lists. As there is no legal guarantee mechanism, four representatives of Gagauzia may enter Parliament today and only one representative the next time.

One the other hand, there is no guarantee that the MP elected in his constituency as an independent candidate will not join the team of a certain political force. The given risks are confirmed by the experience of the last elections in the Pope’s Assembly of Gagauzia that entered the country’s political history because the party whose candidates lost the elections in all the electoral constituencies later formed the ruling faction.

The same fears are caused by another bill of the PDM that, accidentally or not, coincided with the appearance of the initiative about the Gagauz quota. It refers to the switchover to a joint electoral system, under which half of the MPs are elected under party lists, while the other half in uninominal constituencies. The arguments in favor of such a reform are also attractive and logical. It’s hard to refute the positive character of such factors as the promotion of ‘persons from among ordinary people’ to power, the increased responsibility before the voters of the MPs from uninominal constituencies, and democratization of the electoral system at theoretical level. But there are again no guarantees that the trick ‘how to form a government majority without a winning deputy?’ may repeat in practice, but at national scale already.

In fact, it’s not so hard to neutralize the existing fears about the corruption degree of the proposed electoral methods. As a protection mechanism, it may be suggested toughening up the penalties for corrupting the voters, banning the MPs from moving to other parliamentary groups, approving the procedure for discharging the MP elected in an uninominal constituency by the voters, empowering the faction with the right of depriving of seat the members of the faction that didn’t meet the expectations, by a majority of votes, and replacing them with the next candidate on the list. Without such restrictive measures, nobody can be sure that the five MPs on behalf of Gagauzia will not be ordinary renegades. As there are no such clauses, the initiative of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia is doomed to be perceived as a political movement of certain parties.

Veaceslav Craciun, IPN