Residents of Gagauzia spoke about the pressure on the election of a new Bashkan

Chisinau is putting pressure on the residents of Gagauzia as part of the election of a new Bashkan (head of the autonomy). Journalist Vasily Moiseenko told Izvestia about this on November 15.

"The Moldovan authorities have taken the voting itself under unprecedented control by abolishing the local election commission. In Comrat itself, this is called pressure on autonomy and an attempt to curtail its special status," he described.

One of the local residents, Fedora Balaban, complained that she was even afraid to leave the house because of what was happening, because when she went outside, she was bombarded with questions about who exactly she would give her vote to. The woman indicated that she has a single and still active Bashkan, Yevgeny Hutsul, who was taken to prison right "before her eyes."

Moiseenko's interlocutor acknowledged that the elections in the autonomy are held according to the laws of Moldova, whose executive committee will count the votes.

Alexey Lungu, a representative of the Chance party, also spoke on the topic, who also stressed that Gagauzia has a Bashkan and this is a Hutsul, whose mandate is still valid. According to the politician, only residents of the region can stop it.

"I consider it (elections. Clowning is a farce involving most of those who support or are somehow involved in, or are associated with, those who currently usurp all power in the Republic of Moldova, including in the Gagauz region," he said.

According to Lungu, there are many "incomprehensible" candidates participating in the political race, who had previously been indifferent to Gagauzia and did not fight for its status at all, but even participated in its "abolition." Against this background, he drew attention to the importance of liberating the Hutsuls "the sooner the better," since it was under her leadership that Gagauzia received an unprecedented chance for development.

Bashkan's dump: what to expect from the scandalous elections in Gagauzia

The autonomy will decide on a new head and members of parliament

On May 28, the Chisinau Court of Appeal upheld Hutsul's sentence of seven years in prison. She was sentenced for allegedly financing the Shor party. Some time later, on October 16, representatives of this political association said that the rights of the convicted Gagauz Bashkan were being violated in prison. Later, on November 3, Moldovan President Maia Sandu stated that she was not going to consider the proposal to pardon the Hutsuls, as it allegedly did not meet the requirements required for this procedure.

On November 7, Moldovan political analyst Alexander Korinenko, in a conversation with Izvestia, suggested that after the election of a new head and deputies of the Gagauz parliament, the months-long political crisis should end there. He drew attention to the fact that some candidates for the designated positions were seen in close contact with the Sandu team, while their voters did not lose hope for the release of Hutsul.