Madalin NecsutuChisinauBIRNApril 28, 202312:34Most of the candidates racing to become the new governor of the autonomous region are pro-Russian, in an unwelcome development for the country’s pro-Western and pro-EU government.
Citizens cast ballots in the Mavrodi lyceum in Comrat to elect a governor for the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, March 22, 2015. Photo: EPA/DUMITRU DORU
Moldova’s autonomous region of Gagauzia goes to elections on Sunday for a new governor, or Bashkan, with eight candidates in the race, most of them with pro-Russian views.
The elections in Gagauzia represent a first test before local elections throughout the country due in autumn, and for presidential elections that will take place next year.
The southern region of about 150,000 inhabitants is inhabited by an Orthodox Christian people who speak Turkish but sympathise with Moscow. The leadership in the main city, Comrat, often clashes with the Chisinau authorities.
Nicolae Dudoglo, Grigori Uzun, Mihail Formuzal, Victor Petrov, Dmitri Croitor, Serghei Cernev, Evghenia Gutul and Seghei Cimpoies are the eight on the list. The current Bashkan, Irina Vlah, has held the position for two consecutive mandates since 2015 and so cannot run again.
Polls put Uzun, of the Moldovan Socialist Party, PSRM, in the lead, with 15.1 per cent support, followed by Evghenia Gutul, of the Ilan Shor Party, on 13.5 per cent. Dmitri Croitor, Moldova’s ambassador to Turkey, is in third place with 11.2 per cent.
Guzun and Gutul represent the main pro-Russian parliamentary parties. Socialist leader Igor Dodon is close to the Kremlin. The fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor has meanwhile promised to invest 500 million euros in Gagauzia and create 7,000 jobs if his candidate wins.
Croitor, an independent candidate, is more moderate and is supported by Turkey, which exerts a strong influence through its language affinity with the Gagauz and through its development projects in the region.
Russia has also tried to sway the election. On April 17, Moldova banned the planned entry of Rustam Minnihanov, president of Tatarstan, a republic in the Russian Federation, who was going to participate in a congress organised by one of the pro-Russian candidates, Victor Petrov.
The Tatarstan leader is a leading member of Vladimir Putin’s party. Minnihanov is on the list of sanctions applied by the US as close to the Kremlin regime. Putin sent him to Crimea in 2014 to discuss the concerns of Tatars there, after the peninsula was annexed by Russia.
The elections in the region will take two rounds; if a candidate does not get more than 50 per cent of the votes in the first round, the two candidates with the best scores will qualify for the second round.
The ruling pro-European party Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, has no candidate in the elections.
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