The decision was passed by a majority vote of 15 out of 28 deputies present.
Already this distribution of votes shows that in the autonomy, as well as in Moldova as a whole, the society and the political class are strongly divided. Therefore, at the meeting on November 27, in a global sense, the discussion was not about the date of elections to the People’s Assembly, but about the choice of a path for the autonomy.
Within the parliamentary corps in recent months there have been fierce discussions in several directions at once. How to build relations with the central authorities, whether it is worth resuming dialog with Chisinau, and if yes, on what terms? On the other hand, many political forces in the autonomy proposed to hold together with the elections to the People’s Assembly the elections of the new Bashkan of the autonomy in order to end the “cold war” with Chisinau. But supporters of the incumbent Bashkan Eugenia Gutsul, who was sentenced by the court in Chisinau for 7 years, are categorically against it. They argue that until all judicial procedures are completed (protests against court decisions are not considered), Gutsul remains the Bashkan, and there are no legal grounds for early elections.
There is also a kind of powerlessness in the People’s Assembly itself. Speaker Dmitri Konstantinov resigned from his post two weeks ago. According to some sources – under pressure from Chisinau. At the assembly on November 27, the deputies accepted Constantinov’s resignation and elected Nicolae Ormanji as interim speaker.
At the same time, Gagauzia still has an institutional vacuum in the electoral bodies. The permanent CEC of the autonomy was dissolved in 2023 by a decision of the PAG, allegedly “in order to save money”. The Court of Appeal recognized this decision as illegal, but the final decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (SC) is not yet available. At the same time, the creation of a “temporary” election commission for the upcoming elections is considered by many to be inconsistent with the current legislative norms in the autonomy.
Meanwhile, the second news, which appeared on November 27, is about Eugenia Hutsul’s lawyers filing an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because of her arrest in March 2025. It should be reminded that the Bashkan of Gagauzia is defended by authoritative international lawyers William Julie and Gonzalo Boye, who, after the announcement of Gutsul’s verdict at a press conference in Chisinau, said they had no doubt that the verdict would be overturned by the ECHR.
The lawyers are also preparing a second lawsuit to the ECHR – because of the unjustified verdict against Bashkan. However, this complaint can be filed only after all instances within the republic have been passed.
