alegeri.md

A round table was organised in Comrat under the auspices of the EURASIA Foundation- Moldova with the participation of the: representatives of Central Electoral Commission of Moldova, Gagauz autonomy, leadership of People’s Assembly, OSCE Mission in Moldova, mass media (Radio Free Europe, public TV of Gagauzia, Infotag Agency, etc.), national and regional NGOs. The aim of the meeting was to discuss ways of cooperation in order to ensure free and fair elections of the Governor (Bashkan) of Gagauzia.

NGOs involved in the project of elections’ monitoring, implemented under the auspices of EURASIA Foundation-Moldova and with the financial support of the USAID, SIDA and NED, have announced their intentions to undertake the following activities:

• LADOM will undertake long and short term observation of the election campaign and of the election day accordingly to OSCE standards;
• ADEPT will reflect on www.alegeri.md website the activity of electoral bodies and the electoral campaign of the contestants; will produce civic education materials and will provide assistance to the CEC as regard to the training of the electoral public servants;
• API will monitor the way in which public written and electronic mass media will reflect the election campaign.

After debates CEC of Gagauzia has expressed its disposal to assure equal opportunities for all electoral contestants and proper information of voters.

The Central Committee (CC) of the Party of Communists of Moldova (PCM) has issued a declaration supporting the election of Gheorghe Tabunschik as the Governor of Gagauzia. The declaration reads:

• PCM is the only party that includes representatives of Gagauz autonomy among its MP. PCM has substantially extended the constitutional rights of Gagauzia by granting the autonomy with the right of legislative initiative in the national Parliament. Thanks to the PCM, during the last four years the autonomy has succeeded in achieving significant economic results, in improving the welfare of people and in bringing forward the socio-cultural developments. Likewise, it was possible to consolidate the beneficial co-operation between Gagauz authorities and the country leadership.
• It is necessary to continue and to speed up the process of economic and social modernisation of the autonomy, of enhancement of its cultural potential, of maintaining and development of the traditional values of people. All of these will depend to a large extent on who will get for next four years the Gagauz voters mandate for the Governor post.
• Gagauz communists, regional leadership of the party and our adepts see the present Governor, Gheorghe Tabunschik, able to continue and develop the results achieved with difficulties during the last years. The CC of the PCM has decided to support strongly independent candidate Gheorghe Tabunschik for the Governor post of Gagauzia (after Moldpres).

Mihail Formuzal, independent candidate for the Governor post of Gagauzia, has accused the present leadership of the autonomy of breaching the electoral law. According to Formuzal:

• The lists of candidates to be approved as members of CEC have not been presented in time to the deputies; some candidates have a doubtful reputation; the representatives of opposition are not present within the CEC composition.
• The present Governor, Gheorghe Tabunschik, is misusing the “administrative resources”, has unlimited access to the regional public media institutions that reflect his activity, phenomenon which is seen to be an element of his election campaign promoted to the prejudice of other electoral contestants.
• The Governor Tabunschik continues to exert his competences, even though the law stipulates that the contestants should suspend their public activity during the election campaign.
• The way of examining the penal cases opened against Formuzal, would suggest that the regional authorities seek to exclude him from the election campaign (BASA-press).