Peculiarities of elections to People’s Assembly of Gagauzia to be included in Electoral Code

Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu has announced an amendment to the Electoral Code, in order to include special provisions in electoral legislation for organizing elections to the People’s Assembly of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (UTA Gagauzia). The decision follows the failure of the Gagauz authorities to draft and adopt their own document on the specific rules for conducting these elections.

Igor Grosu said that the Moldovan authorities had agreed with representatives of Gagauzia that these specific rules would be set out in a separate document, but this did not happen. Under these circumstances, the parliament assumed the political decision to insert the provisions directly into the Electoral Code.

“As they, unfortunately, have failed again this time, we had to take those amendments and we assumed the political decision to insert these specific rules into the Electoral Code,” Igor Grosu said.

According to the parliament speaker, this solution is necessary, so that all types of elections in Moldova are regulated by a single main legislative act.

“There must be a single, organic law – the Electoral Code – which must provide regulations on holding all types of elections on the territory of Moldova,” Grosu said.

He specified that the Electoral Code would include the specific features of the elections in Gagauzia, including conditions regarding age and the required period of residence on the territory of the autonomy.

“There are specific features: the age threshold, the threshold for I don’t know what else there, how long a person has lived, resided on the territory of that unit. We set them in the Electoral Code and we no longer deal with tailor‑made legislation, laws for someone,” Igor Grosu said.

The parliament speaker said that the authorities’ goal was to organize the elections for the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia by the end of 2026, in order to put an end to the period of institutional uncertainty in the autonomy. Grosu warned that maintaining a situation of uncertainty in Gagauzia serves the interests of the Kremlin.

“Uncertainty in the territorial and administrative unit of Gagauzia serves only the Kremlin,” the parliament speaker said.

Grosu noted that the draft amendment to the Electoral Code would be examined in the first reading by the end of the parliamentary session, while the second reading is to take place during the extraordinary session in next August.

After the amendments are adopted, the Central Electoral Commission will be able to start preparations for the elections, including forming the electoral bodies. Grosu estimates that approximately three months are needed to organize the elections.

“We should have a legitimate, fully empowered Assembly, elected by our citizens from all over Gagauzia,” Igor Grosu underlined.

The parliament speaker also said that representatives of Gagauzia had already held discussions with members of parliament’s legal commission, and a meeting with the parliamentary leadership is to be organized when the agenda allows.

The draft amendment to the Electoral Code sees that elections in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia will be organized on the basis of the electoral legislation of Moldova and the Central Electoral Council of Gagauzia will be set up under the same rules that apply to other electoral bodies of the country.

The draft amendment to the Electoral Code has been consulted with representatives of the People’s Assembly of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia. The discussions aimed to ensure institutional dialogue on the proposed legislative solutions for organizing and conducting elections in the autonomy.