The Executive Committee held an extraordinary meeting on Friday to adopt a set of measures preparing the autonomy for the two referenda planned on February 2, IPN learned from the autonomy's official online resource gagauzia.md.

The adopted decision requires district administrations, mayor's offices and local councils to ensure the preparatory measures for the referenda and to intensify efforts to inform the public on the purpose of the plebiscite. They are also required to ensure security and public order at the polling stations.

Two referenda are scheduled for February 2 – one consultative, asking the autonomy's opinion on the country's foreign course, and the other legislative, which in the event of a successful outcome could provide justification for the Gagauz people to exercise a right to “external self-determination” should Moldova lose its status of an independent state.

The authorities in Chisinau have opposed the move. It was argued that Gagauzia fell short of the requirement to coordinate the plebiscite with the central election body. Moreover, the Prosecutor General's Office initiated criminal proceedings on charges of “arbitrary action” in response to the decision to carry on and hold the referenda in disregard of a court ruling that had found them as falling outside the local parliament's authority.