Two candidates who ran for the post of Bashkan (Governor) of Gagauzia, Serghei Chernev and Nicolae Dudoglo, demanded a vote recount. Though they decided to submit such applications to the Comrat Election Commission individually, they have the same reason – they suspect that the members of the Commission who counted the ballots were corrupted by the candidate who polled the largest number of votes, according to the preliminary results.

Contacted by IPN, Serghei Chernev said he suspects that the members of the Commission were corrupted into counting the ballots in favor of Irina Vlah. Never before did a candidate poll such a large number of votes in the first round. “I do not recognize such elections. I consider they were rigged. Some of the states exerted pressure and this is direct involvement in the internal affairs of our state. The candidates were put in unequal conditions,” he stated.

Nicolae Dudoglo also suspects that the members of the Commission were corrupted. He has told IPN that the members of the Commission were paid for not allowing the observers to see the votes in the ballots. The vote recount could change the outcome and a second round of voting would be thus held.

Contacted by IPN, the head of the Comrat Election Commission Valentin Cara said that no application for a vote recount has been yet received. When these come, the Commission will hold an extraordinary meeting to examine them.

The Bashkan of Gagauzia was chosen by one round of voting. Irina Vlah polled the largest number of votes in the March 22 elections. According to the preliminary data of the Comrat Election Commission, Irina Vlah won 32,543 votes, which is 51.01% of the ballot. Nicolae Dudoglo finished second with 19.05% of the poll, while Valeriu Ianioglo took the third position with 7.96% of the vote. Ex-Bashkan Dumitru Croitor polled 6.20% of the ballot, Oleg Garizan – 5.11%, Ruslan Garbaly – 4.98%, Alexandru Stoianoglo – 4.97%, Leonid Dobrov – 0.40%, Serghei Chernev – 0.19%, while Ilia Anastasov – 0.13%.