alegeri.md

During the Bashkan elections of 22 March, an exit poll-survey of voters upon exiting voting places-will be conducted. Valentin Cara, head of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Gagauzia, told the Infotag news agency that the public opinion survey would be conducted by the experts of the IMAS-INC Chisinau Institute for Marketing and Polls.

Cara also said that the deadline for withdrawal of candidates for Bashkan had ended the day before: “According to the autonomy’s legislation, candidates can be withdrawn not later than five days before the day of elections. Therefore, 10 candidates for the highest office in Gagauzia will appear in the ballots on 22 March.” // gagauz.md

There will be no “day of electoral silence” during the campaign for the elections of the Bashkan of Gagauzia, and campaigning for the candidates will be allowed on Saturday, 21 March. The explanation was made by members of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in response to the application of candidate for Bashkan Irina Vlah, who asked for clarification of legal norms in this regard.

The candidate asked for an official explanation about electoral campaigning on the day preceding the Bashkan elections-21 March 2015. According to CEC Chairman Valentin Cara, campaigning is being regulated by article 54 of the law on the elections of the Bashkan of Gagauzia, which does not provide for any “day of electoral silence.” // gagauzinfo.md

Sixty-five representatives of the public organization “For clean elections” and two representatives of the NGO Association of Young Experts of Moldova have been accredited as national observers for the Bashkan elections. The decision has been made today at the meeting of the autonomy’s Central Electoral Commission.

Earlier, the CEC also accredited as observers 10 representatives of the “Piligrim-Demo” Youth Center, Director of the Chisinau branch of the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS Evghenii Stirbu, two persons representing the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS, and representatives of the embassies of Azerbaijan and Turkey. // gagauzmedia.md

Ballots for the Bashkan elections are to be printed on Thursday, 19 March, at the central printing house of Chisinau located at no. 1 Florilor Street.

“The CEC invites representatives of candidates for Bashkan, employees of the Information and Security Service, and representatives of mass media willing to be present on site during the printing process. On that same night, we will bring the ballots to Gagauzia,” the CEC of Gagauzia Chairman Valentin Cara said. // gagauzinfo.md

Candidate for Bashkan Ruslan Garbali has supported the resolution adopted at the round table titled “Gagauz society calls for urgent reforms”, which took place on 26 February. The candidate will include into his program 18 of the proposed 23 items, with some amendments.

According to the “Stalker” European Center of Civil Initiatives Chairman Serghei Pascov, all other candidates have ignored the resolution. The document’s text with recommendations for candidates for Bashkan was made public on 3 March. // gagauzmedia.md

According to some information, a publicly-funded performance ensemble has been involved in campaigning. Verification will be conducted based on this information, and, if it proves to be true, public officials will be held liable. Bashkan Mihail Formuzal issued an order in that sense to the head of the Chief Directorate for Culture of Gagauzia Vasilii Ivanciuc.

“It has come to my knowledge that the Comrat municipality mayor’s office uses administrative resources, sending performance ensembles to perform in support of a candidate. Check it today, and if it is true, then the persons in high-level positions involved in this process must be dismissed from their offices,” the head of autonomy said. // gagauz.md

The Comrat municipality mayor’s office refused to provide the assembly hall of the local community center for the meeting of the city’s residents with Irina Rodnina, three-time Olympic medalist, ten-time World Champion in pair figure skating, and Member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

On 11 March, Irina Vlah addressed Interim Mayor Victor Volcov, asking for the assembly hall of the Comrat community center to be offered for the meeting of the autonomy’s residents with Irina Rodnina. The meeting was planned for 18 March, but on 16 March, Interim Mayor Victor Volcov told the candidate for Bashkan that the assembly hall would be occupied for some other event. // gagauzinfo.md