CHISINAU, May 17. Elected head of the Gagauz autonomy of Moldova Evgenia Gutsul condemned the actions of the security forces, who seized electoral lists from the court in Comrat on Wednesday night.
Soldiers of the Moldavian special forces Fulger (“Lightning”) raided on Wednesday night in the capital of the Gagauz autonomy and carried out boxes with electoral lists from the local court building. The security forces pushed back some of the picketers, loaded the documents into minibuses and drove off in the direction of Chisinau. All this happened to the cries of local residents who expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the security forces.
«Sandu (President Maia Sandu — ed.) stole the ballots of our voters with the hands of the security forces. Shame on the president and all her assistants for going against the people and their will,» Hutsul wrote in her telegram channel, in which posted a video of the incident.
In Gagauzia on May 14, the second round of elections for the head of the region was held. The local CEC announced the victory of Hutsul from the opposition Shor party, she won 52.34% of the vote. However, the Central Election Commission of Moldova said that on May 13, eight cases were opened in connection with the possible illegal financing of candidates who received donations in excess of the legal limit.
Despite the arguments of the members of the CEC of Gagauzia that the elections of the head of the autonomy are held in accordance with the norms and rules of the local electoral code, and not the republican one, representatives of the central government initiated checks in the election commission. On the afternoon of May 16, employees of the National Anti-Corruption Center (NAC) raided the office of the CEC of Gagauzia with searches. The security forces began to confiscate documents — voter lists.
Deputies of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia arrived at the election commission, they tried to understand what was happening and condemned the actions of the central authorities. Later, local residents, a number of deputies of the Moldovan parliament, former candidates for the Bashkans (head) of the autonomy, and Hutsul herself pulled up to the CEC building. The rally continued near the buildings of the executive committee of the autonomy and the local court, which included employees of the Moldovan Central Election Commission and the NAC.
Gagauzia is an autonomy in the south of Moldova, which traditionally stands for rapprochement with Russia, while official Chisinau has proclaimed a course towards European integration. In February 2014, a referendum was held in the autonomy on the issue of determining the vector of the country's foreign policy. More than 98% of its participants supported the integration of Moldova into the Customs Union.