Runoff to be held in Gaguzia

The Mayor of Ciadar-Lunga, Mihai Formuzal, gained about 34% of the votes for the office of Gagauzia’s bashkan. According to the preliminary results announced on December 4, Formuzal is followed by the Mayor of Comrat, Nicolae Dudoglo, who was voted by 31.4% of the population. The incumbent bashkan, Gheorghi Tabunscic, who was supported by the government party, was voted by almost 24%, and the deputy general prosecutor Alexandr Stionaglo gained 10.6% of the votes. According to these results, a second round will be organized, with 2 best performers to participate in. According to Paul Strutzescu, chairman of the League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADOM), in general, the electoral process was based on the principles of free and fair elections. A calm atmosphere was ascertained at those 64 polling stations. At the same time, Strutzescu mentioned that the observers found several violations, which however did not influence the final outcome of the elections. Petru Macovei, executive director of the Independent Press Association, which observed the media in the electoral campaign, stated that during the second half of November, the regional broadcast media – Radio and TV Gagauzia, aired news which directly or indirectly favoured Gheorghi Tabunscic, ignoring his candidates. The general conclusion is that the regional media did not fairly mirror the election process. The results of the elections show that the voters punished the authorities, as well as the press supporting the authorities for not fairly reflecting the electoral campaign, Macovei said. Political analyst Igor Botan stated that the greatest success of these elections is the relatively massive participation of the voters in the ballot – over 60%. The Central Electoral Commission from Gagauzia did not publicize yet the final results. According to the electoral legislation, the runoff will be organized 2 weeks after the first one, in this case on December 17, 2006.