The heads of EU missions resident to Moldova paid a visit to Gagauzia. They published the following press release about their visit: “ The ambassadors of the European Union paid a visit to the autonomous region of Gagauzia on February 22nd, in order to assess the beginning of the electoral campaign ahead of the March 16th elections for Gagauz Popular Assembly.
Besides Mr. Mikhail FORMUZAL, Governor of Gagauzia, they had meetings with Mr. Stepan ESIR, President of Gagauz Popular Assembly, Mr. Nicolae DUDOGLO, mayor of Comrat, Mr. Piotr IVANOV, President of the central électoral Commission and some of its members, Ms Ecaterina JEKOVA, President of the local public TV channel GRT, representatives of political parties as well as representatives of local media and NGOs.
In all of those meetings the Ambassadors underlined the importance of democratic and transparent elections. Referring to remarks made by some of their interlocutors they urged restraint from the use of administrative resources and deemed as inadmissible the publication of slanderous and denigrating articles against some of the competitors.
Ambassadors noted that the registration of candidates was carried out in an orderly manner. At the same time they indicated their concern about the population’s little interest for this election and especially about the fact that no financial support had been planned for the organisation of the elections thus putting them at risk of being postponed or cancelled.
The Ambassadors recall the importance of implementing the recommendations made by OSCE/ODHIR on the occasion of the previous electoral contest in Gagauzia (December 2006) in particular concerning the updating of the voters lists.
They also stressed the importance the European Union is attributing to this electoral contest, which should be carried out in accordance with the commitments undertaken by Moldova in the framework of the EU-Moldova action Plan and other international fora.
The Ambassadors see these elections as a crucial step towards strengthening Moldovan democratic institutions and Gagauz regional autonomy within a democratic, sovereign and territorially whole Republic of Moldova.
EU ambassadors intend to keep monitoring the electoral contest in gagauzia through regular field visits. "