Registration of candidates for office of south Moldova autonomy's governor to start on 20 March

Chisinau, 18 March /MOLDPRES/ - The electoral campaign for the election of the governor (bashkan) of the Autonomous Territorial Unit (UTA) Gagauz-Yeri will start on 20 March, when the region’s electoral commission begins to receive files for candidates’ registration. The head of the aforementioned commission, Ivan Comur, made statements to this effect at a news briefing today.     

“The conditions of putting forward candidates, order of setting up and registration of initiative groups, which will put up and back independent candidates, procedure of creating and verifying the electoral constituency lists, etc. are established by the Electoral Code and the regulation of the region’s central electoral commission, which may be found on the commission’s website,” Comur said, quoted by the site www.gagauzinfo.md.        

The putting forward of candidates for the position of bashkan will start by 60 days before and will end by 30 days ahead of the date of the polls. Political parties, social and political organizations, electoral blocks, as well as initiative groups, made up of Moldova’s citizens with permanent residence in the Gagauz autonomy, have right to put forward candidates.    

According to Ivan Comur, the signatures for the support of candidates will be collected both in the case of putting up of an independent candidate and in the case of a candidate put forward by parties. For the candidate’s registration, the initiative group should submit to the electoral commission not less than 1,500 and not more than 2,000 signatures, collected in not less than one third of the territorial and administrative units of UTA Gagauz-Yeri.     

"The electoral agitation is banned on the day of the elections and on the day before the polls or the Gagauz legislation sees the silence day,” the head of the electoral commission from the Gagauz autonomy said.  

The elections of the bashkan will take place on 19 May 2019. The governor (bashkan) is the supreme official person of the Autonomous Territorial Unit  Gagauz-Yeri. All authorities of the autonomy’s public administration are subordinated to the bashkan. The elections of the governor are held once in four years.