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Elections of the Governor of Gagauzia
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Political forces of Gagauz autonomy
Ordinary elections for the position of Gagauz Governor were set for December 12, 2010. Central Electoral Commission of Gagauzia (CECG) registered three candidates representing the most important political forces in the region:
- Mihail Formuzal, running for the second consecutive term of Governor, he is the leader of the “United Gagauzia” Movement (MGU), which holds 12 MP seats in the People’s Assembly (PA) of Gagauzia;
- Nicolai Dudoglo, mayor of Comrat municipality, he is the leader of the “New Gagauzia” Movement (MGN), which holds eight seats in the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia;
- Irina Vlah, Member of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, nominated by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), whose faction holds 14 MP seats in the People’s Assembly of the autonomy.
It is noteworthy that both MGU and MGN are rather civic movements and not political parties, since the Moldovan legislation does not allow registration of regional parties. Therefore, MGU and MGN leaders were registered as independent candidates. Among the parties registered with the Ministry of Justice only PCRM has massive support in Gagauzia. Also it’s worth stressing that regional political forces emerged four years ago and fully represents the political options of citizens of the Gagauz autonomy. Indeed, four years ago, in December 2006 four candidates run in elections of the Governor of Gagauzia, all independents, among whom were Mihail Formuzal, Nicolai Dudoglo, who have also confronted in the second electoral round. The other two candidates were actually supported by the PCRM and the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM).
The fact that political forces represented in the People’s Assembly have identified strong figures in the governor race speaks of their structuring and institutionalization, which can be regarded as a positive factor.
Electoral offers of contestants
Out of the candidates registered for the election campaign only the Governor Mihail Formuzal has not officially published his electoral platform, leaving it clear that he intends to go on with the electoral program of four years ago “Eleven steps towards people”. At the same time, during the meetings with voters, Mihail Formuzal stressed that during four years as governor he managed to ensure stability and an upward roadmap of the region’s economy. Among the successes of his policies, Mihail Formuzal mainly stressed the development of partnership with the regions of the Russian Federation, which has provided a substantial assistance (agricultural products, fuel etc.) in critical times, caused by political or economic crises. Mihail Formuzal also considers that during his governance in the region the investment climate has improved substantially. An indispensable component of his campaign is about the expression Formuzal’ attitude towards the PCRM, which constantly harassed him during its domination in the governance of the Republic of Moldova. Thus, Mihail Formuzal entered the campaign for the office of Governor in 2006 having opened eight criminal cases. In electoral campaign for the People’s Assembly in 2008 the party of Mihail Formuzal has confronted very tough with PCRM, which following the elections managed to attract the group of deputies affiliated to Nicolai Dudoglo with the price of supporting this group’ candidate to the position of PA Chairperson, forming a majority in opposition to the Governor. For these reasons, in the current election campaign Mihail Formuzal could not leave without attention the mistakes committed by PCRM in the early parliamentary elections of November 28, 2010. In this respect, Mihail Formuzal asked the PCRM leader Vladimir Voronin to apologize to Gagauz people for a replica made during a meeting with voters in the region, where Vladimir Voronin called a voter idiot. The context in which the replica was made allowed Formuzal to interpret it so that it could be extended to Gagauz people. Moreover, Mihail Formuzal sued Voronin in court for alleged public offense against Gagauz people.
Electoral program of Nicolai Dudoglo was focused on mobilizing the citizens’ efforts to achieve the change, meaning “to make the governance turn its face towards the people and work for the benefit of people”. In this regard the autonomy’s voters were proposed to make “a historic step, so that Gagauzia would become an attractive model for the development of administrative-territorial unit in Moldova”. Dudoglo also insisted during the campaign that he received the mandate from 20 thousand inhabitants of Gagauzia, who “had gathered signatures to provide the Russian language with the status of a second state language, for the right of Gagauzia to self-determination if the Republic of Moldova loses its sovereignty, for the federalization of the country”. According to the protagonist, his program is formulated based on the wishes expressed by the population from all localities of Gagauzia and is a solidarity program that provides for:
- contribution to the transformation of Gagauzia into a new and powerful entity, able to overcome difficulties having “a sense of pride in the heart for its own people and the power to support it”;
- contribution to “unification of all in the name of good”, overcoming disunity and discord, stopping the division in ours and yours, in patriots and non-patriots, in those from Comrat and those from Ceadîr-Lunga or those from Vulcăneşti;
- economic development based on solid social guarantees for everyone, this meaning providing new jobs, civic solidarity and inter-ethnic conciliation, providing municipalities with drinking water, good roads, reliable telecommunications and qualitative medical services, a new vision on culture;
- building a society with a fair attitude towards citizens and their needs;
- promoting to key positions “professionals and good people who will make their duty not to the party or to Bashkan, but to their own people and native land”;
- promoting a policy to avoid quarrels with the centre.
PCRM candidate running for Governor position — Irina Vlah, first secretary of the Comrat District Committee, has been identified following an internal party procedure. Initially it was considered that PCRM’ candidate for the Governor position will be Demian Caraseni, who has manifested as a regional PCRM leader during the elections to the People’s Assembly in 2008 and holds the position of Vice-Chairperson of Gagauz PA. The electoral program of the PCRM candidate, Irina Vlah, provides for:
- delimitation of competences and management areas between central authorities and the autonomy based on principle: “together with Moldova, with the support of Moldova, step by step ahead”;
- adoption of a strategy for sustainable economic development of Gagauzia and legislative acts to achieve socio-economic objectives, attracting investment, creating industrial parks, small and medium business development, implementation of renewable energy sources, development of the mechanisms for public-private partnership, granting additional tax facilities for investors, approval of the assistance program for farmers in the autonomy;
- infrastructure development, road rehabilitation, water supply projects, completion of the gasification program, implementation of environmental projects, implementation of the Sustainable Rural Development Program in Gagauzia, ensured access to public services;
- social sector development, legislative regulation of relations between educational institutions and local authorities, optimization of educational-training process in kindergartens, gymnasiums and lyceums, settlement of the housing problem for young teachers, improving the technical and material basis of educational institutions, strengthening material and technical basis of medical institutions, approval of a comprehensive employment program etc.
Conclusions
- It seems that electoral competition will not allow the identification of winners in the first round. Given the inertia of electoral behaviour, most likely the situation of four years ago will be repeated, when the current Governor Mihail Formuzal and current mayor of Comrat Nicolai Dudoglo confronted in the second round. There is no doubt that these two figures have the highest ratings in the region because of the public positions they hold;
- PCRM candidate Irina Vlah, although she may attract sympathy due to PCRM’ high rating in the region (~60% in the recent parliamentary elections), may face problems due to the patriarchal political culture that prevails in Gagauzia, as well as throughout Moldova. Probably, the Gagauz citizens are not yet ready to vote for a young lady, who is present on advertising billboards in Chisinau, who has left long ago Gagauzia for a more comfortable and more intense life in the capital;
- In the second round, the chances of Mihail Formuzal and Nicolai Dudoglo may be equal. On the one hand, in the second round Dudolgo could be advantaged by the supporters of PCRM voters, since in the People’s Assembly the MPs affiliated to the Movement supporting him are in the alliance with PCRM. On the other hand, it is rather unlikely that PCRM will opt for direct support of Dudoglo, understanding that his eventual election as Governor would make him extremely powerful in the region under conditions when his sister, Anna Harlamenco, holds the Chairperson position of the People’s Assembly.