Comrat Court of Appeals judge self-withdraws from hearing new case of electing president of local parliament

The judge from the Comrat Court of Appeals self-withdrew from deciding a new suit concerning the the legality of electing Ana Harlamenko as the president of the Gagauz People's Assembly, the chairwoman of the Court, Elena Lazareva, has told Info-Prim Neo. On Monday, July 28, the first court session took place after the Communist MP Demian Caraseni sued all the decisions of the local parliament adopted on July 21, when Ana Harlamenko and her deputy presidents were elected. According to Elena Lazareva, the judge had previously considered the suit filed by Demian Caraseni as to the incompatibility of being in function of a number of the parliamentarians and gave his verdict on July 22. The file will be forwarded to the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ). If the SCJ approves of the judge's self-withdrawal, the case will be considered by another Court of Appeals. On July 22, the Comrat Court of Appeals declared illegal the election of Ana Harlamenko as the president of the People's Assembly on July 4. Earlier in June, the Comrat Court declared as illegal the election of Ravnopravie MP, Serghei Cernev, as president. The Communist deputies and their supporters, who later sued the decisions, consider their colleague Demian Caraseni should be in this position, after he was elected on July 12 by 18 deputies. Then, three ballots were declared as void. The counting committee declared the election of Demian Caraseni illegitimate, since there were no sufficient votes.