A runoff vote will be held in ATU Gagauzia to elect the Bashkan (Governor) of the region as none of the candidates who competed in the April 30 election gained more than half of the cast votes. The runoff will involve the contenders who polled the largest number of votes, namely Grigorii Uzun and Yevgenia Guțul, IPN reports.

According to the preliminary data presented by the Central Election Commission in Comrat, the voter turnout at Sunday’s elections was 57.8% of the local voters, which is over 57,000 electors.

A number of 14,849 electors voted for Grigorii Uzun, who ran as an independent, but is supported by the Party of Socialists. The Șor Party’s candidate Yevgenia Guțul gained 14,836 votes.

The runoff vote will take place in two weeks. The names of the two candidates on the ballot will be written in the descending order of the valid votes cast in the first round of voting.

Incumbent Bashkan Irina Vlah could no longer compete for Governor as she held office for two successive times.