The voters in Gagauzia do not have very clear favorites among the eight candidates running for the post of Bashkan (Governor). There is no real competition between the electoral programs. In the election campaign, they mostly use scarecrows like “Romanization”. This leads to unequal conditions between electoral contenders. There is a risk that the Bashkan election of April 30 this year will not be validated. For the Bashkan elections to be considered valid, not less than 50% of the electors from the voter rolls must cast their ballots. This is about 47,000 citizens from Gagauzia of the over 92,000 put on the voter rolls, said experts invited to an event organized by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), IPN reports.
Victoria Nemerenco, coordinator of the IPRE Europeanization, Foreign and Security Policy Program, said the previous elections held in Gagauzia revealed a number of challenges. For example, in the 2019 Bashkan election, the observation mission of Piligrim-Demo ascertained a number of deficiencies that refer to the exercise of pressure on public functionaries, imbalanced coverage of the election campaign by the media, reduced transparency in the financing of the local campaign, etc.
Inna Vrînceanu, good governance expert of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, said that five of the eight election contenders in Gagauzia already have experience of competing in such types of elections. Problems witnessed in previous elections, such as the conduct of election campaigns and voter corruption that is not always officially documented, persist. The presentation of data about voting during the day or presentation of voting results in real time remains a challenge for the Central Election Commission of Gagauzia.
Vitalii Gaidarji, executive director of the public association “Media Birlii – Media Union”, portal laf.md, Comrat, noted that to be elected, the contender must poll over 50% of the vote and the voter turnout must be of at least 50% of the eligible voters. The question is, can such a voter turnout in elections be achieved?
According to the journalist, the electoral registers remain a topical issue. These were shortened and it is not clear why. For example, in the previous Bashkan election, the number of voters on the rolls was of over 109,000, while now the figure is of about 92,000. It is not clear what happened to the 16,000 voters. Given this discrepancy, the legitimacy of the previous election can be doubted.
Alexandru Berlinschii, secretary of the Central Election Commission, said that over 50 international observers designated by ten embassies working in Moldova and by an international association have been accredited so far. The accreditation of national and local observers is within the remit of the Comrat Election Commission. Reportedly, about 20 national observers have been accredited by now.
The event was organized within the project “EU DEBATES CAFÉ: Advancing knowledge and expertise on EU institutions and policies in the Republic of Moldova”, implemented by IPRE, in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in the Republic of Moldova and with the financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
